When Terry (Nina Axelrod) survives a crash on a country road on her boyfriend Bo's motorcycle, a seemingly friendly Farmer/Motel owner, Farmer Vincent (Rory Calhoun) and his younger sister Ida (Nancy Parsons) let her stay at the Motel until she recovers. The Motel is well regarding for Farmer Vincent's smoked meats that are as affordable as they are delicious, but little does Terry know that "It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent's Fritters"
Originally intended as a much darker film for Texas Chainsaw Massacre director Tobe Hooper, the project originally intended for Universal Studios was cancelled with Hooper dropping out. When the Project was revived with United Artist and British director Kevin Connor better known for his Marc McClure adventure films based on Edgar Rice Burrows books the project scaled back many of the darker, gorier, and taboo aspects of the original screenplay and reformatted the project as a dark comedy/horror. The film was largely ignored upon release by audiences who were irked by the fact the movie was more comedic in contrast to the marketing campaign that emphasized the horror elements. Critical reception was more positive with critics enjoying the satire of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Psycho as well as a really good performance from Rory Calhoun as Farmer Vincent. While the movie does have some good elements to it, it doesn't go as far as it could've.
The movie is a lot of fun with it's twisted take on the country horror genre which had capture the public through the 70s with films like Deliverance, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hills Have Eyes, and a number of Ed Gein inspired horror films both mainstream and independent. The movie takes that established framework and fits it through a twisted lens of American pop culture, which brings us to our main villain of the movie Farmer Vincent. Rory Calhoun is an absolute delight as the man, playing the character as a mixture of Orville Redenbacher, Oliver Wendell Douglas, and Ed Gein. The man has a charm to him that makes him seem almost like a spokes person for any number of grocery store products that makes him trust worthy, but also carries enough intensity to be quietly threatening as well. Nancy Parsons is also quite good playing Vincent's sister Ida and the scenes of them in their "secret garden" where they converse while prepping the "meat" are the perfect mixture of creepy and entertaining. In many ways the scenes of Ida and Vincent are like watching the Texas Chainsaw Massacre house if it were framed like an episode of Green Acres (albeit with slightly less grisly details).
The movie is enjoyable, but it has a few drawbacks. Nina Axelrod unfortunately isn't all that interesting as our proxy for much of the movie, and she's not really all that funny or engaging in her scenes. Paul Linke also feels like something of an extraneous character and feels like his character could've been merged with Terry's to create a stronger protagonist. The movie also doesn't have the punch or impact to certain scenes because it doesn't want to get "too gory". The movie doesn't really cut loose until around the last 10 minutes (with a dueling chainsaw battle that's pretty entertaining), and often the movie will cut away from the gorier/meatier bits of the movie. That's a big part of what holds this movie back because unlike Sam Raimi, Peter Jackson, or even some Steve Miner movies it doesn't give that level of impact to itself because it's holding back.
Motel Hell is a good Horror Comedy. It's largely due to Rory Calhoun's strong comic performance that this movie has endeared as long as it has, but there's some funny gags and encounters that make the film quite enjoyable. Our main characters are rather bland unfortunately and the movie shies away from going as far as it could've, but it's a decent movie that deserves an audience.
