Motel Hell

Motel Hell (1980)

It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent fritters!

Farmer Vincent Smith and his sister Ida run a motel attached to a farm where they capture unsuspecting travelers, bury them alive, fatten them up and then harvest their bodies as ingredients for his famous brand of "smoked meats."

Date of release
1980-08-14
TMDB
5.8 / 10 (284)
Runtime
1h 42m
Genres
Comedy, Horror
Director
Kevin Connor

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: California

Motel Hell is a 1980 American comedy horror film directed by Kevin Connor and starring Rory Calhoun, Nancy Parsons, and Nina Axelrod. The plot follows farmer, butcher, motel manager, and meat entrepreneur Vincent Smith, who, with the help of his sister Ida, traps travelers and harvests them for his human sausages. The film's screenplay was written by brothers Robert and Steven-Charles Jaffe, who also served as producers.

Production

Motel Hell was written and produced by brothers Robert Jaffe and Steven-Charles Jaffe, who, up to that point, had never worked on a screenplay together. According to Robert, the story "sprung forth full-blown from our demented minds". The screenplay was finished around 1977, after four weeks, although selling it proved difficult. According to Steven-Charles, studios "either hated it or thought it was the most bizarre script they'd ever read".

Besides Hooper, the Jaffes had also been impressed with director Kevin Connor's 1974 horror film From Beyond the Grave, and ultimately hired him to direct Motel Hell. They were both pleased with his work, especially his handling of the film's "very fine line of black humor". By Connor's recollection, he was hired for the project after having spent three unsuccessful months in Los Angeles attempting to find work.

Filming began on April 23, 1980, and concluded on June 12, on a budget of approximately $3 million. Connor described the shoot as "very pleasant" and noted that the entire cast were "a delight."

A primary filming location was the Sable Ranch in Santa Clarita, California. Most of the interior filming took place at Laird International Studios in Culver City, California. A day of filming also took place in Moorpark, California.

According to Connor, the chainsaw duel scene in the film's finale was devised during the shoot and was not a part of the original screenplay. Connor recalled that the scene was filmed over the course of one day: "The big problem was that by now the carcasses of the pigs were somewhat ripe. The chainsaws had rubber blades and we used stuntmen when the characters wore the pig heads."

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