Bad Times at the El Royale Blu-Ray

In 1958, at the El Royale resort near Lake Tahoe, an anxious man buries a duffel bag beneath the floorboards of his room. Later that night, someone pays him a visit—and leaves behind a corpse…

A decade later, soul singer Darlene Sweet (Cynthia Erivo) arrives at the El Royale with a suitcase full of guarded optimism. As Darlene walks the border of the parking lot and resort—also the border between California and Nevada—she comes across a priest, Father Daniel Flynn, looking lost and confused.

At the unmanned check-in desk, Darlene and Flynn meet traveling salesman Laramie Seymour Sullivan, a boorish Southerner dressed in a rumpled shirt and shiny tie beneath a loud plaid jacket that mirrors his gift of the gab. (And it proves no surprise that he insists on occupying the equally garish Honeymoon Suite despite being a bachelor.) Through his rambling near-monologue, we learn the El Royale was once the hotspot of Tahoe. The country’s most famous celebrities and politicians commingled in and around the resort’s casino, bar, bungalows and pool.

But like the decade itself, the good times came to a close. The El Royale lost its gambling license, the celebrities moved on, and things went downhill, fast. Now, in the resort’s lobby where the shine has faded and the laughter fallen silent, Flynn, Sweet, and Sullivan are eventually welcomed by the resort’s 20-year-old general manager and sole employee, Miles Miller.

As Flynn and Darlene each decide which room, and therefore which state, they wish to stay in, a muscle car screeches into the parking lot. Into the motel hurries hippie Emily Summerspring, whose clothing and assertive manner indicate she’s a woman embracing the second wave of feminism for all it’s worth. Emily demands a room, slaps her money on the counter, grabs the key and exits the lobby as quickly as she arrived.

Four guests, one strange host –– and two more characters yet to be revealed. Along with many more twists, turns and secrets. At the El Royale, the bad times are just about to start…