After running out of money while backpacking in a tiny, male-dominated town in the Australian outback, two friends resort to a working holiday at the Royal Hotel. When the locals behavior starts cr...
The power dynamics between men and women weigh heavy on “The Royal Hotel,” a nontraditional horror thriller from director and co-writer Kitty Green. This isn’t a slasher flick, jump scare bonanza, or gorefest, however, but a film where the real danger comes from unrestrained toxic masculinity.
Best friends Hanna (Julia Garner) and Liv (Jessica Henwick) are celebrating a young American rite of passage by backpacking in Australia. Not watching their budget, the two women run out of money and head to an employment office to seek part-time work so they can continue on with their trip. Looking for an adventure and a great story to tell their buddies back home, Liv convinces a hesitant Hanna to take a temporary live-in job as bartenders in a remote and rugged Outback mining town. They arrive to find a dilapidated local watering hole that’s populated by predominantly male transient workers who harass them with unwanted attention and unwelcome advances. Soon, the two women find themselves trapped in a distressing situation that quickly spirals out of control.
It’s a frightening premise for a movie, and Green (along with co-writer Oscar Redding) have a talent for crafting authentic, sympathetic characters. Women in particular will relate to so much in this story. What resonated the most with me is the difference in personalities between Hanna and Liv. When faced with a town whose inhabitants have such a blatant disrespect for women, Hanna becomes unsettled and wants to leave. Liv, on the other hand, wants to drink, party, and have fun, dismissing the crude language and disgusting, sexist comments and jokes the pair endure as a “cultural thing” and shrugging it off as “boys will be boys.” The film accurately portrays the natural female tendency to excuse bad male behavior (and our general resistance to stand up to it, especially when we are young), and a woman’s reluctance to trust her own instincts, both of which really hit home.
Green builds an unnerving tension with what’s implied, and the most chilling parts of the story come from using your own imagination to fill in the blanks. It’s the idea of what could happen that’s so terrifying. You can sense the danger that these young women are in, from the spooky, anxiety-building isolation to the bone-chilling stares of the feral patrons on the other side of the bar. This film is so unsettling that it should have a trigger warning.
This is also a coming-of-age tale of two young women who are still in the process of figuring out who they are in a setting with growing tensions. One can sense the danger and is scared and cautious, while the other has the tendency to turn red flags green and express herself with a risky level of immaturity. It’s a story of strength, though, as Liv and Hanna discover the power in standing up for themselves.
This isn’t to say all male characters in the film are bad. Since the story is told from a female point of view, it gives a very real look at how gender dynamics come into play in a hyper-masculine world. The women are constantly judging their own safety and sometimes dismissing their concerns and what they perceive as warning signs as a simple overreaction. It’s a very real thing that happens, and the male behavior and attitudes portrayed in the story are threatening and ominous, especially when shown from Hanna and Liv’s perspectives.
That being said, I didn’t like how in this feminist story, men come to the rescue several times. Liv and Hanna hold their own, but there are multiple scenes where they need guys to “protect” them from everything from abusive drunks to rogue snakes. This really bothered me, but it does add to the subtle complexities and social construct themes the film raises.
“The Royal Hotel” ends with what I would call a divisive conclusion, but the overall storytelling is engaging and thematically provocative. This film will resonate with most women in one way or another, as it certainly did with me.
