Motel Hell
Tags: comedy, dark, murder, cult, violence, atmospheric

Plot synopsis:
Farmer Vincent Smith and his younger sister Ida live on a farm with an attached motel, named “Motel Hello” (but the neon ‘O’ flickers). Vincent's renowned smoked meats are actually human flesh--he sets traps on nearby roads to catch victims. He buries the victims up to their necks in his "secret garden", then cuts their vocal cords to prevent them from screaming. They are kept in the ground and fed until ready for harvest. Ida helps Vincent, as she sees the victims as only animals.
Vincent shoots out the front tire of a couple's motorcycle. The male, Bo, is placed in the garden, but Vincent brings the female, Terry, to the motel. Sheriff Bruce, Ida and Vincent's naïve brother, arrives the next morning. Vincent tells Terry her boyfriend died in the accident and was buried: a trip to the graveyard shows his crude grave marker. Terry, with nowhere to go, decides to stay at the motel. Vincent and Ida continue to capture more victims for the garden. Terry gradually becomes attracted to Vincent's honest manner and folksy charm, much to Bruce's dismay, who tries to woo her himself without success.
Vincent captures more victims by placing wooden cutouts of cows in the middle of the highway to cause his victims to stop, allowing him to capture them. He also places a fake ad and lures in a pair of swingers, believing the hotel to be a swing joint. The next day, Vincent suggests he teach Terry to smoke meat. Ida becomes jealous and attempts to drown Terry, but Vincent arrives to save her. This causes Terry to fall completely in love with him, and she tries to seduce Vincent. Vincent denies her advances, saying they must first marry. She agrees to marry the following day.
Bruce comes to the motel to protest Terry's choice. He tells Terry that Vincent has "syphilis of the brain". Vincent arrives and drives off his brother with a shotgun. To prepare for the wedding, Vincent, Terry, and Ida drink champagne, but Ida drugs Terry's glass and she faints. Ida and Vincent then prepare some victims for the wedding. Meanwhile, Bruce investigates the disappearances and becomes suspicious of his brother.
Vincent and Ida kill three victims and take them to the slaughterhouse. In removing the other three, the dirt around Bo loosens and he begins to escape. Bruce sneaks back to the motel to rescue Terry, but Ida returns. She ambushes Bruce and knocks him out, then takes Terry at gunpoint to the meat processing plant where Vincent tells her his secret. Terry is horrified by the prospect of smoking human flesh. Meanwhile, Bo escapes and frees the other victims from the garden. Vincent sends Ida back to the motel to fetch his brother, but the victims attack her and knock her out. Terry tries to escape, but Vincent gasses her, and then ties her to a conveyor belt. He is interrupted by Bo, who crashes through a window, but Vincent strangles the weakened Bo.
Bruce awakens, finds one of his brother's shotguns, and goes to the plant, but finds that his brother has armed himself with a giant chainsaw and placed a pig's head over his own as a gruesome mask. Vincent disarms his brother, but Bruce grabs his own chainsaw and duels Vincent. During the fight, the belt restraining Terry is activated, sending her slowly to a cutting blade. Despite his wounds, Bruce drives the chainsaw deep into Vincent's side. Bruce frees Terry, and then returns Vincent, who gasps his final words, leaving the farm and "secret garden" to Bruce, and lamenting his hypocrisy by using preservatives.
Bruce and Terry go to the "secret garden" and find only Ida, who is buried head first. They leave the motel; Bruce comments he is glad he left home when he was eleven. Terry suggests burning the motel, claiming it is evil. The neon sign saying “Motel Hello” fully shorts out, permanently darkening the ‘O’.

Review: One of the reasons the movie works so well is because of the excellent casting choice of Hollywood veteran Rory Calhoun in the lead role of eccentric farmer and Motel manager Vincent Smith.
Rory Calhoun gives one of the best performances in his career in this masterpiece of a movie as Farmer Vincent, a man who makes meat products with "Special" ingredients.
It also has the famous Wolfman Jack in a small role as Rev. BillyThis is a great comedic horror, and has the obviously famous line "It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent's fritters".
It also manages to give a big nod to THE Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE by paying homage to it and making fun of it (as opposed to what some people might think, MOTEL HELL is not a TCM-rip-off).
I even suspect Tobe Hooper might have found some inspiration in MOTEL HELL for his end-battle in TCM 2 between Dennis Hopper and Leatherface.The cinematography and camera-movements are surprisingly decent for this rather low-budget flick, as well as some make-up effects (I loved it when the camera slowly travels through the dark living-room only to reveal Nancy Parsons hiding behind the door, holding a big knife at the end of the travel-shot).
Funny, deliciously campy black comedy-horror spoof is a bit of a forgotten gem.Just what kind of meat is it that Farmer Vincent and his sister are cookin' up out there at their rural motel?
Nancy Parsons is a trip as Vincent's portly sister Ida. Paul Linke is perfect as the bumbling younger brother of the two who is also the local sheriff.There's a few moments of violence and gore, especially in "the garden" scenes.
With just the right blend of comedy, suspense, gore and horror "Motel Hell" is a real treat and the kind of film that can be watched over and over again.
Parsons and Calhoun play Ida and Vincent Smith, a bizarre brother and sister duo who run the local motel in town.
And when the guest attendance at the motel falls off, Calhoun sets traps out on the highway for passing motorists so that he can add them to his garden.It also has Nina Axelrod as the girl that Calhoun and Parson take pity on and 'adopt' as one of their own, and Paul Linke as the dumb sheriff who bumbles his way into finally ending Calhoun's operation, once and for all.
"Motel Hell" has loads of style and rural atmosphere,plenty of laughs plus a little bit of gore.The film was somewhat influenced by "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre"(1974)and "Eaten Alive"(1976),but there are some original ideas floating here like planting(?)people in the garden.Rory Calhouln is amazing as a Farmer Vincent,and the finale when he wears the pigface is a hoot!Highly recommended..
The acting of course of Rory Calhoun as Vincent and and Nancy Parsons as Ida do deliver towards this horror.Maybe you can't take it all to seriously because there's also some black comedy to spot here and there and of course one full frontal and some tits here and there.
Still up to today it's a much spoken flick due the pig head who also gave Fangoria some problems when they added that particular picture on their cover and is still one of the most searched issues of Fangoria.Just have a look now that it finally has it's Blu Ray release to see where the cult status came from, the chainsaw and the hog's head.Gore 0/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 1/5 Story 2,5/5 Comedy 1/5.
Farmer Vincent and his sister Ida run a motel on the outskirts of town famous for it's homemade meat fritters.
So yeah, I guess she's pretty much doomed to become one of Farmer Vincent's fritters.MOTEL HELL is a cheap little throwaway horror film from the early '80s.
In this case, bumpkin farmer Vincent Smith (Rory Calhoun) and his sister Ida (Nancy Parsons) bury their guests in his backyard to fatten them and turn them into smoked meat.
****SPOILERS**** Watching Farmer Vincent, Rory Calhoun, when he's not at work at the meat shed and ambushing people on the roads for future meat-processing you get the impression of a sweet and kindly old man.
Who together with his gluttonous sister Ida ,Nancy Persons, Farmer Vincent would ambush motorists on the roads around his farm and motel and plant them into the ground.
Motel Hell is also peppered with some truly kooky characters which make the movie more interesting to watch when the action moves away from Farmer Vincent for any period of time.
Regardless, with this little problem out of the way the films ending is quite enjoyable and contains a nice battle scene between Bruce and Vincent as well as a couple of the movies best laughs.Overall Motel Hell is a fun little film.
This twisted and original black comedy masterpiece delivers even its most gruesome horror elements with a knowing wink, and the film is so much bloody fun that it's impossible not to wink back.I'm hoping that anyone reading this review resisted the urge to delve into the details of Motel Hell's plot, because there are so many excellent nuances augmenting the basic story that knowing too much would strip away a great deal of the movie's impact.
I won't spend any time here divulging any secrets, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Motel Hell is equal parts gross, hilarious, and brilliant, and that Rory Calhoun delivers a performance here that is so indelible, it's impossible to watch him in anything else without seeing Farmer Vincent.Vincent and his trusted sidekick Ida are perfect creations: downright lovable and charming at their best, and truly imposing when they shift gears into homicidal fury.
It's a clever trick by the film-makers, and one that sets a tone that has never been so perfectly balanced in any horror-comedy hybrid before or since.Vincent and Ida aren't really evil people, and in fact they view the happenings at their motel as important work.
Good call on that one.The initial establishing shot of the motel is one of the best opening frames in movie history, and the pun created by the fortuitously burned-out final "O" on the neon sign reading "Motel Hello" perfectly essays both the humor and horror about to unfold in the film.
It's nowhere near the true classics of the genre, films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes and The Last House on the Left; but Motel Hell stands apart as a worthy addition to extreme cult cinema.
The sub-plot comes from a tourist taken into the farmer's home after a motorbike 'accident', which killed the young girl's boyfriend.As you would expect from a film of this sort, Motel Hell isn't entirely serious - with most of the scenes coming off as a parody of the serious genre films.
Overall, Motel Hell won't do much for fans of serious films - but if you like your cult flicks, especially bizarre and gory ones; this one is definitely worth seeing!
Motel Hell was a really cool movie.Its one of those movies where u can watch over and over and never get bored with.Its kinda like TCM with all the weird ppl and stuff but its not as suspenseful or scary as TCM.So if ur looking for a fun and really gross movie check this one out..
Rory Calhoun is pretty good as Vincent, Nancy Parsons is awful and I can't work out if Paul Linke is a really bad actor or deliberately acting that way.
From this point on you realise Motel Hell is a film that defies all expectations.The movie tries to be all things to all people and while in most cases such a thing would not work, it is done with enough hilarity here to be acceptable.
One fine ending that makes up for some of the less interesting parts and lack of gore in the movie.Motel Hell overall is plain odd, but if you can get a couple of mates round who are willing to watch a weird low budget flick then you should have a good time, but make sure they stay 'til the end!
A wonderfully absurd and ghoulish tale, of the type that typically graced the pages of EC comics during the 50s, Motel Hell is superb fun from start to finish: director Kevin Connor perfectly balances the mix of dark humour and gruesome horror, achieving some truly macabre imagery in the process, whilst his talented cast give finely tuned performances that go to make this film one of the more unique and memorable horror experiences of the 1980s.Rory Calhoun plays Vincent Smith, an elderly farmer (and motel owner) renowned for his delicious range of smoked meats.
Hauled from the wreckage and buried up to their necks in a field with their vocal cords slit, the poor souls are left in the ground until 'ripe', at which point they are dragged to the smokehouse for curing.After Vincent spares one of his victims, pretty pillion passenger Terry (Nina Axelrod), nursing her back to health with the aid of his equally twisted sister Ida (Nancy Parsons), the farmer finds himself the object of the young woman's affections.
But with Vincent's jealous brother Bruce (the local sheriff) keen to break up the unlikely relationship, and sister Ida finally fed up with Terry's presence, it's not long before Vincent is forced to choose between business and pleasure.Featuring surprisingly clever and witty dialogue ("we'd better find a place to crash" says one tired character, shortly before careering off the road), a few outrageous characters (the swinging couple who turn up at Vincent's motel looking to party are hilarious), and one or two genuine moments of pure, freaky genius, including an amazing chainsaw duel during which Vincent wears a severed pig's head as a mask, Motel Hell is a fiendishly fun slice of cartoon violence not to be missed..
Trouble is, Hooper's cult classic was an incidental horror sidetrip with a raw realism; "Motel Hell," by comparison, is a constantly winking parody that is neither funny nor scary (save for the genuinely nightmarish "pig-mask" imagery near the end), just interminably annoying.
Rory Calhoun seems out-of-place as the grinning Farmer Vincent, never quite conveying the right amount of malevolence to be a convincing psychopath; the rest of the cast contributes embarrassing amateur-hour performances that hinder the already anvil-heavy humor.Side note: did anyone inform director Kevin Connor of the wonders of -lighting- during the course of this little venture?.
Siblings Vincent (Rory Calhoun) and Ida Smith (Nancy Parsons) run a motel called Motel Hello and also have delicious, lip-smacking smoked meats.
I'm not going to give it away, you should watch this black comedy/horror film and find out for yourself.What does make the film so enjoyable are the performances by both western legend from the 50s/60s Rory Calhoun and Nancy Parsons.
After a motorcycle "accident" renders her unconscious, Terry (Nina Axalrod) is taken in by the kindly Vincent Smith (Rory Calhoun), who, along w/ his sister Ida (Nancy Parsons) owns and operates the titular, roadside establishment.
Although I never saw the film when it first came out in 1980, I never forgot the tagline "It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent's fritters." Rory Calhoun is great as the good-natured murderous Farmer Vincent, who along with his demented sister Ida (Nancy Parsons), runs the titular establishment alongside his smoked meat business.
Motel Hell is a masterpiece slap stick comedy and dark humor with a teaspoon of gore added in to create a cult classic that will live on as a dirty little film watching hidden treasure.
After an accident on the highway, a woman recuperating at a brother- and-sister owned roadside motel nearby finds that the strange number of nearby disappearances are travelers being killed and harvested for a popular meat forcing her to try to stop them.This is really one of the weirdest films from the time period.
The owner of Motel Hello, Vincent Smith(Rory Calhoun) and his sister Ida (Nancy Parsons, "Porky's) run the place.
"It Takes All Kinds of Critters to Make Farmer Vincent's Fritters!"Quick Movie Review of Motel Hell (1980)I have always loved low budget, grindhouse, and low budget horror films.
Finally after all these years watched the B classic horror flick "Motel Hell" and it was funny, and a little crazy and a different style of film for sure!
Farmer Vincent's recipe might well make the world more amenable to that product.Motel Hell with a minimum of actual blood and gore and a maximum of black comedy is a funny film, but not for the squeamish.
Rory the old coot still has his needs even though this puts him in competition with his own cousin Paul Linke who is the local sheriff and as clueless as the rest as to what goes on in Motel Hell.I don't usually rate films like this too high.
What would overnighters possibly have to fear from such noble souls as Vincent and Ida?As a comedy-horror film "Motel Hell" is better than most I have seen.
And although Nancy Parsons makes an ideal Ida, Rory Calhoun looks too much like an actor to be a credible farmer.
If you like B-movies or Rory Calhoun, you can't go wrong with Motel Hell..
"Motel Hell" is more of a comedy than a horror movie.I did like the part where Farmer Vincent yanks the people out of the ground with the tractor, but I was expecting them to be all fat and plump...
This is a black comedy that is having fun with the horror genre.Farmer Vincent (Rory Calhoun) kidnaps unsuspecting travelers and buries them in his garden.
Turns out Vincent and Ida fill their sausages with the victims they catch, and then plant their heads in a garden."Motel Hell" is a campy, B-horror movie, but for what it is it was actually pretty decent and entertaining.
I must be really odd because I am a political junkie and I love fried links with any meal.With that said, how can you honestly criticize Motel Hell, the thoroughly repulsive, hopelessly funny, cultish, 1980 horror flick, with Rory Calhoun devouring the scenery (armed with pig's head, rubber bib overalls, and chainsaw)?
Rory Calhoun and sister Nancy Parsons plant people in the ground, cut their vocal chords, and later harvest them to smoke and cure for use in a variety of meat products sold by the regionally famous Farmer Vincent Smith.
But in a way I actually found I respected a movie like Motel Hell more than I would a movie like Saw or the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake(s), because at least here the filmmakers- and particularly Kevin Connor (who never rose above making B to Z grade movies and TV specials and such)- kind of recognize what they're doing is meant to be cheesy, and there's more fun in it, where as the other more contemporary directors really think they're making scary, edge-of-your seat entertainment, when its sadism in the guise of 'oh-it's-so-cool' over-stylizations and inanities.With Motel Hell you get what you pay for, about as weird a knock-off of the original Texas Chainsaw film but this time with less character development, main villainous characters that range from being the most polite rural-folk this side of Little House of the Prairie (Rory Calhoun, in probably one of the most note-worthy performances of his very long and admired career as a character actor, plays the main "farmer"), to being really whacked out of their skulls.
Farmer Vincent Smith (Rory Calhoun) is famous for his smoked meats that he markets from his roadside motel.
Supposedly Good But I Don't See It. Poor horror/black comedy with Rory Calhoun as a rural motel owner and farmer who murders travelers, cooks them, and sells the meat.
Also stars Nancy Parsons as Calhoun's pudgy and creepy sister, Ida, Wolfman Jack as the televangelist Reverend Billy, and look fast for John Ratzenberger (Cliff from "Cheers") as the drummer of an ill-fated rock band that ends up skinned and hung from hooks in Farmer Vincent's slaughterhouse.HIGHLIGHT:  The classic damsel-in-distress climax with a demented twist, involving amnesiac heroine Terry (Nina Axelrod) tied down to a conveyor belt headed for a buzz saw and a chainsaw duel between doofus Deputy Bruce Smith (Paul Linke) and Farmer Vincent, who just happens to be wearing a giant, bloody pig's head (I remember when I was six years old seeing a picture of Calhoun in a Fangoria magazine, wearing the pig's head and overalls and holding the long, bloody chainsaw in his hands -- it gave me nightmares for months and is probably partially responsible for turning me into the B-movie horror geek that I am today.).
My Grandpa's used to tell me about all the old good horror films, and Motel Hell always seemed to pop up the most.
I'm 13 years old And Motel Hell Is A Good Comedy Horror Film!!!
Farmer Vincent (Rory Calhoun) runs Motel Hello with his sister Ida (Nancy Parsons).
As far as horror comedies go, "Motel Hell" is good, not great.
The story: Farmer Vincent (Calhoun) and his pudgy sister Ida (Nancy Parsons) are the most well-loved purveyors of meat in the area.
Vincent Smith ( Rory Calhoun) is famous for his smoked meats, he runs the hotel with Ida Smith( Nancy Parsons).
This 1980 horror comedy stars Rory Calhoun, Paul Linke, Nina Axelrod and Nancy Parsons.
The late, Calhoun (Pure Country) plays Farmer, Vincent who run a motel with his sister, Ida (Parsons) where they secretly trap and slaughter travelers to make pork products out of them.
This is an amusing and a bit disturbing film that pokes fun/pays tribute to "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Psycho." Calhoun was great in it and if you like horror/slasher flicks, check it out at least once..
With the help of his devoted sister, Vincent would do anything to keep the family recipe a secret."Motel Hell" is rated R for all the same reasons every horror film from the 1980s holds the certification.