Looked forward to this one having seen the trailers. Left dissapointed and a tad confused. Such a great first 45 minutes with loads of genuinely good moments. The rest played out like a hundred other movies I've seen where sadly, none of the clever twists promised eventuate.
The opening grips you within seconds and leads to a murder but the perp is never identified, or even alluded to again in the following 2 hours. The hotel being on a state line, one of the big plays in all the hype, has literally the most tenuous link with anything that plays out. Seriously the hotel could have been in any state that allowed gambling in the '60's. No clever story around this Red Herring. I thought the bellboy/staff may had been the young robber at the heist, would have been an interesting development - he had been waiting at the El Royale for his payoff for years - nope another false lead. Infact this is what the movie provides in spades, Red Herrings. You as the viewer are looking for clues, all the way through that you think will all come into play in the final scene. There are none, don't waste your time. I expected so much more from the guy behind the Cabin in the Woods, one of the best horror movies for years. It was clever and not afraid to explore the genre in different ways. BT also felt like a showcase for the singing talents for Ms Erivo - every scene she sings in goes on for far too long and destroys the pacing of the movie. The good news is that the movie looks good and the performances are spot on. However, in the end, BTATER is nowhere near as clever as it aspires to be