The
Innkeepers (2011)
Directed
by Ti West
Starring
Sara Paxton, Pat Healy, Kelly McGillis
The
Yankee Pedlar Inn is having its last weekend in business and business looks
dead. With only a handful of guests, workers Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat
Healy) have the place mostly to themselves. Both amateur ghost hunters, the
pair decides to spend their last weekend at the inn trying to capture
definitive proof of ghosts. Specifically, they want to record the appearance of
local legend Madeline O'Malley. It’s their last chance to see the guest who
never checked out, as O’Malley hung herself in the honeymoon suite and has been
said to haunt the inn ever since. As the two investigate, they start to realize
that maybe they won’t get to leave the Yankee Pedlar.
Writer/director/editor
Ti West is a confident and talented voice in filmmaking. Broken up by chapters,
the story starts out quirky and slowly transitions to full blown paranormal horror.
The pacing is rather slow, more on par with older films. It’s not really a
detriment, as the extra time gives the characters and story enough room to
develop. You get to know the people working The Yankee Pedlar and you get to care
about them. That makes the scares more frightening as West stops leading on the
audience and starts to show some truly spooky stuff. And even though you have
to go through a lot of teases and false scares, the actual ghostly occurrences
are pretty unnerving. West shows a kind of restraint and clarity of vision that’s
rare in the modern horror scene.
There
aren’t many special effects to speak of, but the moments they’re utilized are
heart stopping. The makeup is especially outstanding; bring some grotesque life
to the unsettled dead. This isn’t the movie for lots of eye candy, but what
does appear is quite lovely.
The
small cast more than ably delivers some excellent performances. Sara Paxton has
a wonderful mix of naïve innocence and wide eyed enthusiasm. When the spooky
stuff really begins, Paxton shows just why she’s a modern scream queen. Pat
Healy is dead on as that guy everyone has worked with; someone who’s probably
too old to keep working crap jobs and not have an idea of what he wants out of
life. He’s affable, slightly creepy, and yet somehow totally relatable. Kelly
McGillis turns in a good performance as a former star turned psychic medium. It
could have been a role played for laughs, with jokes a little too on the nose.
Instead, McGillis grounds Leanne with a sense of dignity and purpose.
The Innkeepers
is a great ghost movie that favors a deliberate pace, building tension, and
character development over lazy filmmaking. It’s a fantastic feature from one
horror’s rising stars.
9 out of 10
