El fantasma de Madeline O'Malley

I don't usually write reviews but after watching this film and then looking at the latest reviews posted on here i felt compelled to give this a serious review.

If you like Slasher movies where girls who fall down a lot are being chased by a maniac with a weapon. THIS FILM IS NOT FOR YOU.

If you like Zombie movies with lots of blood and gore. THIS FILM IS NOT FOR YOU.

If you've got the attention span of a goldfish and like to chat to your mates all the way through a movie. (Guess What).

Right now the rantings out the way.

If you like sitting in a dark cinema/room, late at night with no distractions and you like ghost stories, then watch this film. I thought the acting, directing and sound score of this movie all worked really well and that with ghost stories less is more. The odd noise here and there, was that a ghost? or wasn't it? The uncertainty of whether this is real or not is what a ghost story should be all about, yes it's slow but that builds up the atmosphere, which i thought was great and there's some genuinely jumpy parts in the film. Sat here on my own in the dark watching this film had me gripped from start to finish. It's been a long time since i've seen a film this good and i recommend this to anyone who's into ghost stories.

This movie had a lot of potential with an interesting hook and great location but failed to deliver all around.

A horror movie relies on tension and atmosphere to build fear. This movie takes a very long and tedious time establishing characterization instead of mood. Unfortunately, the two main characters and in fact all the characters in the very small cast are so two-dimensional and stereotypical that all that time was thoroughly wasted. To add insult to injury, there is even a cheap jump scene at the beginning that breaks what little mood is established by the opening credits and pans of the set. When the movie finally reaches its climax, it still is not scary or horrific. It just falls flat. The ending was unsatisfying as well with no real resolution or twist.

It's just good enough to keep you watching and waiting for something to happen, but it never does.

"The Innkeepers" is … well, first and foremost a very difficult movie to rate and review! I can't deny feeling a bit disappointed after my viewing, but on the other hand I realize I can't possibly claim that this is a bad movie. Quite the contrary, in fact… In a relatively short time, the still very young writer/director Ti West distinguished himself as a respectable narrator with a versatile imagination and a vastly profound knowledge of the genre classics. Horror buffs' expectations naturally increase with every new movie, so after West's creative and playful zombie debut "The Roost" and the captivating throwback to 70's satanic horror "The House of the Devil", a whole lot of people – including myself – were highly anticipating his homage to atmosphere driven haunted house effort. And "The Innkeepers" is largely a praiseworthy accomplishment, for sure. Particularly the tone, atmosphere and the decors/set pieces are downright stupendous and the hotel filming location ideally lends itself for a good old-fashioned and nostalgic ghost tale. Dreamy Claire and sarcastic Luke work as reception clerks at the classy old Yankee Peddlar Inn. The hotel exists since many decades but has filed for bankruptcy now, so during the last boring weekend with minimum capacity, Claire and Luke occupy themselves with trying to find evidence of the hotel's legendary ghost story from the past. Many years ago, the abandoned bride Madeline O'Malley hung herself in the honeymoon suite, and according to the local folklore legends her restless spirits still meanders around the corridors of the Yankee Peddlar Inn. Claire seems the most receptive for the ghostly vibes, even to a point where a spiritual medium strongly advises her to leave the hotel. If it were all exclusively about style & atmosphere, "The Innkeepers" would deserve a solid 10/10 rating. Not since "The Shining" we have seen such an efficient usage of a guest house in horror films and Ti West (very) patiently takes his time to introduce the main characters, as well as to illustrate the background of the hotel and generate the ominous mood-setting. This inevitably results in very long suggestive horror tableaux (slow moving camera through the hallways, doors slowly closing by themselves, etc…) and false scares, but it's all very stylish and eerily crafted. But slow building ups do eventually have to lead somewhere and this is where the film falls short in my humble opinion. The whole denouement is too confusing and leaves too many elements open for personal interpretation. There are some truly powerful "jump" sequences in the last fifteen minutes of the film, but the horror always remains oppressed in favor of the mystery of it all. I wasn't looking for gore and filth, but a bit more excitement would have been welcome. Too bad. Purely talking in terms of "new" atmospheric ghost stories, the James Wan/Leigh Whannell film "Insidious" is slightly more satisfying.

I'm a little ambivalent about The Innkeepers, much as I was about Ti West's previous opus, The House of the Devil. Both films put nary a foot wrong on atmospheric or technical levels, both are backed up by solid little stories, yet for all their little pleasures neither really wowed me, as if not all their elements gelled, or perhaps they didn't go far enough. The Innkeepers has the advantage of simpler and far more forthcoming entertainment, making it an overall pleasurable ride, one that I may even revisit and enjoy more. Its a character rather than scare driven affair, focusing on Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy), last staff of the going out of business Yankee Pedlar inn, and later Leeanne Reece Jones (Kelly McGillis), ageing actress turned psychic. With adept performances from the three leads the characters portray a spectrum of vulnerable humanity, Claire quirky and likable, but asthmatic and somewhat mindful of her lack of direction, Luke a droll slacker slowly reaching that point where falls life and the weight of what could have been and Leeanne fully self aware but only a little bitter, of the three the most in possession of herself. It being the last night of the hotel customers are scarce so Claire and Luke set out to investigate the inn's alleged ghost, a girl who committed suicide whose body was hidden in the basement to avoid scandal. At first the tone is light, the characters trade off one another, there are jump scares played for light humour and the audience gets to be a part of the films little world. Later on though the laughs are dropped, as Claire and Luke get serious in their investigation and things get rather spooky, leading to a nicely jolting conclusion. Everything works here, yet it didn't really stir me until the final scenes. Its not the measured pace, not gripes with the plotting (which maintains plenty of pleasing ambiguity), more I guess the issue of things not really gelling together. The film is intentionally episodic, broken into three chapters and there isn't much flow between them other than the flow of plot. So the inspired humour, a sort of light and likable slacker vibe with several true to life moments, and the horror, mostly swift creepy jolts and some brooding atmosphere, never really feed each other in a manner fit to hold the film together and make it really effective, the two veins subvert each other quite nicely just not in a manner that works so well in the moment of the film itself. Still, I can see people liking this one a lot and its done pretty nicely on the critical circuit so I may be in a minority. Definitely check it out for yourself say I, its worth experiencing for yourself.

I began watching this with a a sense of hesitation due to a couple of reviews which were very negative. In a way I can understand why some people might not like this. There are no great action scenes for starters, blood and gore is kept to the bare minimum and a lot of time is spent on building on the characters. If you are going to watch this, you really are just best watching it knowing the bare minimum of the film's storyline... i.e set in a hotel. I would go as far as to say the storyline is obscure and really does not impact on the film at all. For me, the acting was great. After the first half an hour of getting comfortable with the two main characters I found myself getting nervous for them until by the end of the film my heart was beating ten to the dozen, which is the aim of a good horror I feel. I waited for my wife to go to bed before putting this on. I watched it by myself around about midnight with the lighting on low and I have to say that had I got a pillow to hand, I would have been sitting behind it.