'Bad Times at the El Royale' Review

Bad Times at the El Royale is a 2018 American neo-noir thriller film written and directed by Drew Goddard. Set in 1969, seven strangers each hiding their dark secrets ended up in the shady El Royale hotel that sits on the California and Nevada border.

Jon Hamm acts as an FBI agent pretending to be a salesman so he could work undercover undetected. Lewis Pullman acts as the seemingly weak and clumsy hotel clerk who is also a drug addict due to his PTSD from his war years. Jeff Bridges acts as a bank robber pretending to be a priest in order to avoid suspicion so he can retrieve his heist money. Cynthia Erivo acts as a soul singer, well, she was just a soul singer for that matter. Dakota Johnson as the elder sibling who kidnapped her younger sister, trying to save her from an evil cult which she just rescued her from. Cailee Spaeny acts as the younger sister being abducted but she is a complete psycho and cares for no one but the man she thinks she loves. Which is the character that Chris Hemsworth acts, he seems to be a hippie and has sex with any woman in his cult that he desired.

After the guests checked in and starts going on about their businesses, chaotic and unpredictable events soon follow and thwart the clients' original plans for the night.

The FBI agent takes the room apart and takes out all the bugs in his room, more than he expected. He then steals the master key and goes into the secret tunnel behind the rooms to retrieve the tape and subsequently discovers the ongoing abduction going on in the two sisters’ room. The bank robber opens up the floor and realizes he checked into the wrong room so he plans to drug the soul singer in order to break into her room to dig up the money but ends up getting whacked unconscious on the floor by the singer. The elder sibling shot the FBI agent who tried to investigate the kidnapping and free the younger sister and the hotel clerk who was still behind the two-way mirror becomes the collateral in the shooting. While the older sister crawls into the tunnel to find out if the hotel clerk was severely hurt, the little psycho sister calls the evil cult leader to the hotel to get them. The priest wakes up and convinces the soul singer he'd share the money if she helps him digging up the money. Meanwhile, the evil cult leader arrives with his minions, they started interrogating and killing everyone like a game. The hotel clerk turns out to be a veteran that was exceedingly good at shooting and with the help of the priest, they start to turn the tables.

With interesting dialogues, theatrical lightings, dramatic scenes, funky music, chapter intros, bloody violence and flashbacks, there were a lot of things all going on at the same time. Everything started to get out of hand due to seemingly unrelated random events and no one seemed to be in charge of the situation for long. It's humorous in a dark sense that reminded me of some of the Quentin Tarantino's works.

In the end, with enough hints from the younger sister and the crazy evil cult leader, everything starts to make sense as to why the FBI agent was there and the significance of the tunnel, the two-way mirror and the tape. The fate of the tape is an obvious and wise one which adds a layer of mystery to the story. Overall, all the storylines come together effortlessly and the film is engaging and fun to watch.