Farmer Vincent Smith (Rory Calhoun) runs two businesses, the Motel Hello and his renowned smoked meat supplier, which he prepares himself with extra-special ingredients. A hint as to what that extra special ingredient may be is shown here as we watch him switch the neon motel sign to "No Vacancy" and set off into the night. He appears to be setting up traps on a bend of the nearby road, and sure enough when a motorcycle drives by, complete with rider and passenger, they are sent flying into the nearest tree and rendered unconscious. What could Farmer Vincent be up to?
Well, it doesn't take a genius to figure it out, so it's unfortunate none of the largely oblivious-until-it's-too-late characters are geniuses. Motel Hell (the letter "O" blinks on and off on the sign in a neat illustration of what travellers are getting themselves into) was a supposed horror comedy partly inspired by The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. And in an odd twist, in turn this appeared to inspire Tobe Hooper's sequel to that film, which could have been because Hooper's name was attached to this project when it was in its early stages. In truth, it's no better or worse than that film.
Yet what Hooper had in his favour was an over-the-top quality, as while TCM Part 2 might not have been all that great, it did feature a gallery of grotesquerie that Motel Hell sorely lacks. For some reason, for an outrageous comedy this is curiously muted in its execution, with gloomy photography and muttered gags from its cast that works against any of the appropriate delirium being cooked up. All that is cooked up are some dodgy sausages, which we never see prepared - Farmer Vincent wields a cleaver in his slaughterhouse occasionally, but that's about it.
One aspect that does move towards the right tone concerns what the farmer does with his victims when he's fattening them up. In the sole parts that have the requisite queasiness, he buries his crash victims up to their necks in the ground and cuts their vocal chords so they can't cry out for help. This leads to bizarre shots of extras' heads under canvas sacks which are occasionally lifted up to see their bonces waggling and hear gurgling noises from their damaged throats. More imagination like that in Robert Jaffe and Steven-Charles Jaffe's script would have been welcome.
John Ratzenberger turns up in some strange places, doesn't he? Before his fame with the sitcom Cheers came along, he popped up in the most unlikely bit parts to catch the innocent viewer unawares with a "Hey! It's Cliff from Cheers!", and so he is here, buried up to his neck as part of a rock band the farmer causes to crash. He even gets hypnotised by disco lights prior to being strangled by a noose. But he's not the main character, as Calhoun and Nancy Parsons (as the sister, Ida) have a house guest who was the passenger on that bike, Terry (Nina Axelrod), who for some reason Vincent takes a liking to and spares. She has another admirer in the Sheriff (Paul Linke), but as he tried to rape her while out on their date her prospects look dim. But then, she's pretty dim herself, and with no one to really back here and the humour falling flat, Motel Hell is a disappointment in spite of its cult reputation, even if Wolfman Jack is in it. Music by Lance Rubin.
