The Innkeepers (2011)

During the final days at the Yankee Pedlar Inn, two employees determined to reveal the hotel’s haunted past begin to experience disturbing events as old guests check in for a stay.

The Innkeepers is a 2011 horror film written, directed, and edited by Ti West. The basic plot revolves around Claire (Sara Paxton – Shark Night 3D) and Luke (Pat Healy) who are two employees at the Yankee Pedlar Inn, a once-grand hotel that is in its last weekend of operation. Business is extremely slow, so Claire and Luke, who both happen to be amateur ghost hunting enthusiasts, decide to spend their last weekend working at the hotel finding proof about the ghost of Madeline O’Malley. Madeline was a bride who hung herself in the 1800’s when her husband abandoned her on their honeymoon, and whose body was hidden in the basement by the hotel owners. With the help of a former actress-turned-psychic (Kelly McGillis – Stake Land) who is one of the hotel’s only guests, Claire and Luke’s weekend takes some unexpected and scary turns.

I saw a post on another site about this film, and they recommended it to people who liked Insidious. I loved Insidious, and thought The Innkeepers sounded good, so I gave it a watch. What I got was a hollow feeling afterwards. I didn’t hate it, but definitely didn’t love it. It seemed to be a slow burner, cautiously, eerily building up to something big but a payoff never happened. In fact, not a lot really happened. The scenes designed to make the audience jump seemed a little telegraphed, one or two were pretty good but the rest seemed wasted. Even at the beginning, sadly I had seen the ‘ghost’ that appears in the laptop scene on a viral video that was passed around online a few years back. I guess if you’re not expecting it, that might make you jump.

The Innkeepers is divided into three chapters and an epilogue. Throughout them all you will see that Claire suffers from asthma. This is very noticeable as it appears as though every time she takes out the inhaler, she may as well look at the camera, nod, wink and then use it. It became so obvious that this was integral to the film, but rather than let the audience pick it up for themselves it was labelled and pointed out so no one could ever miss the fact she has asthma.

It just never seemed to go anywhere, and there seemed a lot of parts in the film had no real need to be there. We get to see a woman and her son also staying at the hotel, as she is hiding from her husband. That was it really, I kept waiting to see if there would be any link to this, but no. A couple of the ‘ghost hunting’ scenes looked ok, a bit with the piano being the creepiest but still nothing to make me want to recommend the film.

Acting wise, I liked the two female leads but the guy annoyed me. Just shave your hair dude, that weird quiff was just off-putting! He wasnt very likeable and maybe a bigger name could have brought a bit more flair and excitement to the role. The film looked fine, visually nothing exceptional though. The camera scenes following the actors through corridors was very reminiscent of ‘The Shining’, but obviously no where near as well done as in Kubrick’s masterpiece. Ti West has admitted the story was a struggle to write. This shows, as it seemed he had so many ideas, tried to implement them and whilst they weren’t terrible they just never seemed to go anywhere and added to the confusion. The ending was a small saving grace, at least they went with something a little different.

In conclusion, I read some reviews on IMDB after I finished the majority of mine to see if it was just me that wasn’t blown away by this film. It seems to be a very love or hate movie, some people scoring it 1’s & 2’s, others 8’s & 9’s, hence its average score. Anyone that doesn’t score this high seems to be criticised on the forums for not grasping the subtle nuances of psychological horror. Believe me, I do normally, but The Innkeepers didn’t really show any true horror moments. A couple of decent ‘scare-scenes’ don’t make a top quality film, despite Eli Roth’s glowing endorsement on the DVD front cover above (who am I to disagree with him I hear you say)! If you like your ghost stories and can put up with a slow pace with little tension then you may enjoy The Innkeepers.

Posted by Tysoncarter182 on July 11, 2012

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