Appetite (1998)

George Milton's Appetite is a sad Euro-pudding art-house psychological drama set in a somber Isle of Man hotel, a reserved, restrained British version of the Eagle's "Hotel California" by way of The Shining's Overlook. It's a timeless place stuck outside of the social world where the lost and lonely wander and wallow in their own regrets. Chanteuse Ute Lemper is an aging beauty and the hotel's resident matron ("I came here to kill myself, but I never managed to finish my suicide note," she jokes grimly), Trevor Eve is the proprietor in love with Lemper but paralyzed by the memories of his dead wife, and Yse Tran is a grown orphan glumly plotting her own suicide while awaiting the arrival of her estranged mother. Into this melancholy mix blows angry, aggressive British sailor Christien Anholt, who shakes the somber mood with a game of dare that sends Tran into the "haunted" room 207 and sets to work on the vulnerabilities of the other wounded souls. This film is not a horror movie or a ghost story, despite the misleading promotion, but a dreamy little drama of regret, revenge, and quiet frustration. Handsomely shot and directed with a moodiness so thick you could carve it, the oddly captivating tale never quite finds its balance and threatens to drift off in any number of directions (as one guest plays with a handgun in his room, the score evokes the music from Taxi Driver), but finally drifts into a lovely denouement that is sad, hopeful, and satisfying. --Sean Axmaker Amazon.com

Not a horror movie

Let me say that this movie is not a horror flick. It is billed as that and it is far from that. It reminded me of the movie clue with everyone's secrets and in the end there is someone that are dead. This is more like a soap opera with all of the "stories" that people are holding. It is a very odd movie. I gave it two stars because it did have a plot and it seemed very interesting at times, but I was expecting to see a horror movie about a haunted room 207. January 9, 2007

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