The Innkeepers [DVD]

I actually really enjoyed this film; it's true that for long swathes of time very little happens, however Sara Paxton and Pat Healy excel as a pair of amateur ghost-hunters whose relationship is decidedly off-kilter, with Healy's bookish Luke almost professing his love (or perhaps just lust) for his lissome companion.
Director Ti West does very well with very little, and there are a handful-of scalp-prickling moments that may be derided by horror-movie afficionados but certainly worked on me!
I agree that the ending is a bit pat, however it did leave me with a fair few questions, and I think the film would bear repeated viewings.

The Innkeepers is written and directed by Ti West. It stars Sara Paxton, Pat Healy and Kelly McGillis. Music is by Jeff Grace and cinematography by Eliot Rockett. It's the last few business days at the historically spooky Yankee Pedlar Inn, and two employees spend their hours by indulging in some amateur ghost hunting. But as the clock ticks down it becomes apparent that the hotel's haunted past is anything but an urban legend.

Following on from his excellent slow burn girl-in-peril horror film, House of the Devil, Ti West determinedly sticks to his principals for The Innkeepers. This automatically alienates a good portion of the horror faithful, especially in the younger echelons, for those who need and seek thrill after thrill, a ghost train ride of a horror movie, The Innkeepers is sure to be a hard slog to get through. But for a certain niche in horrorville, where the adults reside who love a sombre tone, character and story build up and a last quarter pay off, then The Innkeepers is a little gem of a creeper.

That's not to say that West's movie is flawless, far from it, there is still dumb decisions made, including a major league one that the film's terrifying conclusion hinges on, and the Inn itself is not exactly the stuff of haunted building nightmares. That is until we go down to the basement or up to the deserted third floor....But West has such a good sense of mood and the good sense to involve us so thoroughly with the two protagonists, both excellently portrayed by Paxton and Healy, that once things eventually take the turn into the realm of the outright scary, the little missteps are easily forgiven. West's traditional values to be applauded, not frowned upon. Bonus, too, is McGillis in a decidedly off kilter performance as an ex-actress-come psychic healer who likes a drink and has a significant role to play in proceedings.

The haunted house spooker is making something of a come back lately, and it's great to see directors prepared to get their movies out there and offer up an alternative to the over populated slice and dice formula. Ti West is showing himself to be a friend to the grown-up chill seeker, long may he continue in this vein. 8/10

The Innkeepers delivers perfectly on a human level. Whether Paxton and Healy are talking about the terrible customers and unbeknownst to them, the creepy harbingers of doom who occupy the second and third act, it all builds up to a crescendo. All these convergent threads make the innkeepers the antithesis to poorly scripted genre films the world over. The only saggy scene is when Claire (Paxton) goes out of the hotel and down the road to the coffee shop where Lena `everyone's least favourite mumblecore patron' Dunham works.

The mixed reception expresses this point perfectly; this is not a film for everyone. The Innkeepers is hard to digest, slow and lacking in the explicit allures of the genre. However at the same time, West is calling back to the period of classic cinema when horror wasn't just about the visceral immediate reaction, it was about something that lingered in the memory long after the closing credits. It was about people.

Ti West's Innkeepers is the antidote to the modern horror film to the point where I wouldn't really call it a horror film. Like all the best genre films, it's not the jumps or the scares that make these pictures stand the test of time. On the contrary it's the drama, the characters and the development and thanks to a witty script of brilliant tension, interaction and tragedy together with the fantastic low-key performances from Sara Paxton and Pat Healy. The Innkeepers is the antithesis to poorly scripted genre films the world over.