A strange old hotel where the only escape is through a labyrinth of rooms filled with mystery, horror and adventure.
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Review by Parker Jesse Chase:
Hotel Purgatorio drops us into a strange old hotel where escape is possible only by moving forward, room by room, through fear, doubt, and tests of the soul. The title is literal and symbolic. This is purgatory, an in-between state shaped by suffering, waiting, and the slow burn of reckoning.
The film opens with our lead arriving alone in an elevator, stepping into a lobby that feels polished yet wrong. The animation carries a refined, painterly quality, like a digital canvas brought to life. It is graceful, but stiff enough to unsettle. The sim-like movement keeps the viewer slightly removed, which works at first, though smoother motion could have helped this world feel easier to sink into.
Our lead has no memory of who he is or how he arrived. The lobby attendant offers help with a eerie smile, telling him he may check into any room. Any room, no key required. Just speak the number. The rule is simple, and immediately strange. The hotel feels populated by ghosts, guests and staff alike, all carrying private knowledge. Their smirks and quiet laughter suggest the joke is on him.
He chooses room 917, whispered to be a room of doom. Inside, he meets a mysterious man who offers what sounds like a miracle. A cure for his body, while he is free to roam during the repair. The cost is a temporary body swap. With no clear reason to agree, he does anyway. The deal turns sour fast. The body he enters has a heart defect, and the man who promised healing reveals his real aim, to steal a healthy body for himself.
What follows is a tense exchange of identities, desperation, and uneasy teamwork. Everyone wants their body back. Survival means cooperation. Room 917 becomes a test not just of fear, but of trust. When they finally defeat the room, it becomes clear that others are watching. Some want him to fail. Some want him to win. His fate is entertainment, a wager placed on his soul. Each room offers a new trial, yet all roads point to the same truth. This hotel is the afterlife. This is his purgatory, a gray space between judgment and release.
The story softens when a meet-cute appears, bringing warmth into an otherwise cold maze. Temptation follows close behind. Seduction, comfort, and escape all beckon. In the end, it is sacrifice that opens the door. By choosing others over himself, he earns peace, and possibly a new ghostly love. The final moments carry a quiet magic, a sense of calm and fresh beginnings. Fans of Dante’s Inferno or horror stories built around isolated trials will recognize the structure, but Hotel Purgatorio finds its own voice by focusing on human insecurity. It asks what keeps us stuck between heaven and hell. Fear, selfishness, and the refusal to change.
The film argues that our choices shape what comes next. Even in death, where we land still depends on who we are. There will be temptation. There will be figures who invite us to sink to their level. The harder path is persistence.
The message is simple and earned. Protect your heart. Keep going. Do not stay lingering in the lobby.
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