Ted assists a group of unusual women with their luggage, which he brings to the Honeymoon Suite. He learns they are a coven of witches, attempting to reverse a spell cast on their goddess, Diana. The ritual requires them each to place an ingredient into a large cauldron; however, one has still to retrieve her ingredient – semen – with one hour left. She seduces Ted and they have sex in the cauldron. He leaves and they complete the ritual, and Diana emerges from the cauldron. After Ted's service in the honeymoon suite, a party guest from another room calls the front desk for some ice. He is unsure which floor he is on, but eventually directs Ted to Room 404.
Room 404 – "The Wrong Man"
Written and directed by Alexandre Rockwell
At Room 404, Ted finds himself in a fantasy hostage situation. Sigfried maniacally accuses Ted, whom he calls Theodore, of having slept with his wife Angela. Ted is forced at gunpoint to participate in the scenario, uncertain what is real. He becomes stuck in the bathroom window as the party guest appears in the window above, uttering the word "ice" and vomiting. Ted escapes, just as another guest arrives, looking for Room 404, and is greeted by Sigfried in the same manner.
Room 309 – "The Misbehavers"
Written and directed by Robert Rodriguez
A husband and wife leave for a New Year's Eve party, tipping Ted $500 to keep an eye on their children, Sarah and Juancho. Ted instructs the children to stay in their room; when he leaves, they vandalize the room, exploding a bottle of champagne. They call Ted for toothbrushes, and he tries unsuccessfully to put them to bed. He leaves but is summoned back to find the room in further chaos: a painting has been turned into a dartboard with lipstick and a syringe, Juancho has a cigarette, Sarah has a bottle of liquor, the television is set to an adult channel, and the children have found a dead prostitute in the box spring. Sarah stabs Ted in the leg with the syringe when he repeatedly uses the word "whore" and Juancho accidentally sets the room on fire. Their father returns, carrying his passed-out wife, and asks Ted, "Did they misbehave?" The sprinkler system activates while everyone stands still. Unsettled, Ted calls his boss Betty to quit. After a conversation with Margaret, he gets Betty on the phone and tries to quit, but receives a call from the hotel penthouse. Betty convinces him to stay and tend to the guests.
Penthouse – "The Man from Hollywood"
Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, adapted from "Man from the South" by Roald Dahl
The penthouse is occupied by famous director Chester Rush and his friends, including Angela. They request a block of wood, a doughnut, a ball of twine, three nails, a club sandwich, a bucket of ice, and a hatchet "as sharp as the Devil himself". Ted is invited to join their challenge: Chester's friend Norman has bet he can light his Zippo cigarette lighter ten times in a row; if Norman succeeds, he will win Chester's car, but if he fails, his pinky will be cut off. Ted, asked to "wield the hatchet" should Norman fail, tries to leave, but Chester offers $100 up front and another $1,000 to perform his assigned role. Norman's lighter fails on the first try, and Ted chops off his pinky, sweeps up the money, and leaves the penthouse with an energetic step. As the credits roll, Chester and company frantically prepare to take a screaming Norman to the hospital.
The four segments are shown chronologically, except for "The Misbehavers", the events of which both precede and succeed the events of "The Wrong Man". There are some connections between the four segments:
In "The Wrong Man", Ted recalls the witches' ritual in "The Missing Ingredient" with the expression "weird voodoo thing".
Ted can be seen with the two cherries from "The Missing Ingredient" at the beginning of "The Misbehavers".
Sarah in "The Misbehavers" calls a random room to ask a question. The man who picks up happens to be Siegfried from "The Wrong Man".
Angela appears in both "The Wrong Man" and "The Man from Hollywood".
When calling his boss, just before the beginning of "The Man from Hollywood", Ted recalls the events of the first three segments.
Reception
Critical reception
of ReelViews described it as "one of 1995's major disappointments". Hal Hinson of The Washington Post said it "asserts itself as a goof so laboriously and aggressively that you almost feel pinned back in your seat". The film won a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress for Madonna. The film holds a 13% "Rotten" rating from Rotten Tomatoes based on 45 reviews. The critical consensus reads: "Four Rooms comes stocked with a ton of talent on both sides of the camera, yet only manages to add up to a particularly uneven – and dismayingly uninspired – anthology effort.
