The Innkeepers

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.

The former fancy and elegant Yankee Pedlar Inn will be closed in a couple of days to become a parking area and the employees Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy) are taking care of the hotel while the owner is traveling on vacation in Barbados. They are bored and the hotel has only four guests: an unpleasant and angry mother with her young son; the TV actress Leanne "Lee" Rease-Jones (Kelly McGillis) that claims to be psychic; and an old man that spent his honeymoon in the hotel and wants to say good-bye the room where his wife and him had spent their wedding night.

The amateur ghost-hunters Claire and Luke decide to find evidences that the ghost of Madeline O'Malley, a bride that committed suicide when her fiancé left her in their wedding day, haunts the hotel and they summon her spirit. However, they are not prepared for what comes next....

"The Innkeepers" is a slow-paced horror movie with a promising story; unfortunately something is missing to be a good film. The characters development is long and poor, and the first two-thirds of the plot goes nowhere. Further, there is no clear explanation why Claire is threatened by the ghost of Madeline O'Malley. One good point is to see again fifty- five year-old Kelly McGillis, who has aged with dignity without trying to be forever young. I still recall her in "Witness" and "Top Gun" and it was a great surprise to see that gray-haired lady that she has become. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Hotel da Morte" ("Hotel of the Death")

At the soon to be closed Yankee Pedlar Inn, the last remaining employees consisting of college dropout Claire (Sara Paxton) and amateur paranormalist Luke (Pat Healy) while away the hours tending to the limited assortment of guests or hunting for ghost activity to post on Luke's website detailing the Inn's hauntings. With the arrival of former actress turned spiritualist Lee (Kelly McGillis), Claire uses Lee's guidance to push her amateur paranormal hunts to greater extremes.

The Innkeepers is the third major film from writer/director Ti West following his two 2009 films The House of the Devil and Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever. Although West had been slated to The Haunting in Georgia (better known as The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia), West dropped out early on presumably to avoid a repeat experience of producer interference that befell Cabin Fever 2. Centered around the real life haunting hot spot the Yankee Pedlar Inn in Torrington, Connecticut the movie was filmed on location with many scenes shot at the actual Inn. Much like West's House of the Devil, The Innkeepers is undeniably influenced by past genre staples, but also like House of the Devil, West showcases a strong understanding of character and atmosphere.

A big part of what appealed to me with The Innkeepers was the performances and dynamics between the two leads Sara Paxton and Pat Healy. Both of them feel like well rounded everyday people who are underemployed and their interactions where they play silly games or pranks reminded me of the interactions seen in Kevin Smith's Clerks where he explored minimum wage tedium. The movie does a solid job of making the Yankee Pedlar a character unto itself and we get some moments between Claire, Luke, and the guests with Kelly McGillis quite good as the obligatory psychic expert who adds some solid humor and humanity to her performance. Much like House of the Devil, The Innkeepers is a slow burn with most of the scares situated in the back half as we build character and atmosphere in the first. Granted there were times where maybe I began to wander a little bit, but there'd always be something around the corner that would pull me back in.

Ti West continues to show his penchant for mining familiar territory and making it feel knew with solid characters and atmosphere. Definitely well worth a viewing.

If you consider this a Ti West film starring Sara Paxton, then it is merely a clinic on how to get the most (as a Director) from the least (minimal cast, set, SFX). And West does an impressive job of setting a mood and maintaining production quality. But It is still a so-so result. If however you consider this a Sara Paxton film directed by West, it will have a special appeal for her fans. Playing younger than her actual age at the time, with no makeup, she holds the attention. In many ways, one of her best roles.

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.