Released in Bad Times at the El Royale is a stylish neo-noir thriller directed by Drew Goddard. The film follows seven strangers, each harboring dark secrets, who check into a run-down hotel on the California-Nevada border in 1969. Film Overview & Themes
Bad Times at the El Royale (2018), directed by Drew Goddard, is a stylized neo-noir thriller that uses its unique setting—a hotel straddling the California-Nevada border—to explore themes of morality, redemption, and the weight of secrets. The Guardian Narrative Structure and Style Bad Times at the El Royale -2018- -BluRay- -720...
By 1969, that glamour has rotted. The carpet is stained, the roof leaks, and the only remaining employee is a jittery, lonely clerk (Lewis Pullman). The two-way mirrors reveal the film’s thesis: everyone is being watched, and everyone is hiding something. Father Daniel Flynn (Jeff Bridges) is a convict on the run. Darlene Sweet (Cynthia Erivo) is a struggling singer. Emily Blunt’s character, a cold hippie with a rifle, is hiding a kidnapped child. The hotel forces their secrets into the light, exposing the lie of the isolated individual in a surveillance state. Released in Bad Times at the El Royale
(Jeff Bridges): An aging priest who appears to be struggling with early-stage dementia. The Guardian Narrative Structure and Style By 1969,
Before this, Drew Goddard wrote Cloverfield and directed The Cabin in the Woods . Bad Times is his spiritual sequel to Cabin —both films are deconstructions of genres. Cabin deconstructed horror tropes; Bad Times deconstructs noir and thriller tropes.