Motel Acacia is located in an isolated snow-bound forest somewhere in Slovenia. The stern Caucasian motel manager (Jan Bijvoet) brought in JC (JC Santos), his son from a Filipina woman, to be his assistant. JC found the behavior of his father towards the first guest, a middle-aged man named Dee (Perry Dizon), to be very strange. The next morning, Dee was found consumed by the very bed he laid on, and JC was told to clean the mess up.

JC would soon discover that the real function of his father's motel was to exterminate illegal immigrants who wanted to cross the border. His father connived with a desperate Filipina agent Angeli (Agot Isidro) to help him fulfill his quota of male guests to feed the monstrous creature that lived in the killer bed. However, if it were a female guest who lay on the bed, she would wake up alive, but she would be carrying a baby monster within her abdomen.

Watch more in iWantv or TFC.tv

The international cast gathered by Malaysian-born, Philippine-based director Bradley Liew was impressive. Santos, Isidro and Dizon are Filipino. Bijvoet is Belgian. Will Jaymes and Talia Zucker, playing the helpful couple James and Cathy, are Australian. Nicholas Saputra, playing the assertive guest Don, is Indonesian. Bront Palarae, playing the bearded guest Bront, is Malaysian. Vithaya Pansringarm, playing the elderly guest Sami, is Thai.

The premise of this horror movie about this bizarre method of border control was actually quite original and interesting. The remote location and interior design of the building they chose to be the motel fit very well into the director's vision. The special effects of how the bed consumed its victims or the full-body rendering of the tree monster during the climax were not that shabby. The cinematography of both exterior and interiors scenes looked very good.

The film started off as weird, yet oddly compelling. However, as the it went along, the shaky storytelling style simply went off the rails. Things started not making much sense as more guests entered to complicate the character motives and interactions. Continuity issues plagued the editing process. The actors themselves seem confused by what their characters were doing and saying.

By the end, the film's point was lost as the closing credits rose to Agot Isidro's haunting rendition of Vincent de Jesus' eerie dirge "Tayo'y Maglagalag."

This review was originally published in the author's blog, "Fred Said."

Related video:

Watch more in iWantv or TFC.tv