Ti West’s The Innkeepers begins as a horror film with a good bit of potential. The caretakers of the Yankee Pedlar Inn, Claire (Sara Paxton, Shark Night 3D) and Luke (Pat Healy, Dirty Girl), remain in the hotel on its last weekend of service due to poor business. These bored, young employees, who are obsessed with the alleged paranormal offerings of the inn, intend on capturing bona fide evidence of a haunting by Monday morning. Armed with exuberant curiosity and a sound recorder, Claire and Luke alternate shifts throughout the nights and begin to experience creepy goings-on.
A simple premise, the intent to pay homage to classic horror, and the directorial work of West should have yielded a fun, if not enthralling scary movie. Instead, The Innkeepers runs on for too long and falls too short of doing anything for the genre. West’s prior work on The House of the Devil, a recent horror favorite of mine, is certainly displayed in this newest film. His skill with sound effects, eye for chilling, lonely spaces, and talent for generating a suspenseful slow burn still represent the best parts of The Innkeepers. West’s decision to shoot in the actual, “haunted” Yankee Pedlar Inn in Connecticut is an excellent one; the environs of the old building make for the most interesting character in the movie. West puts the atmosphere at the forefront of nearly every shot and utilizes long hallways, dim lighting sources, and unsettlingly empty space to great effect. He also chooses a static camera for the majority of shots, a decision I cannot advocate for more in today’s world of kinetic camerawork. If the film were only judged by its visuals and audio, The Innkeepers would be another standout venture for Ti West.
Unfortunately, the other pieces in the filmmaking puzzle just do not connect to create a compelling or fun flick. West’s strength does not lie in his dialogue-writing ability. The protagonists are supposed to be quirky slackers in the midst of something bigger than either of them. By the end, Claire and Luke just feel like pointless passers-by in a scary event rather than strong but terrified victims of a nameless phenomenon. Frankly, the characters are flat and the lines they send out from the script are barely on par with those of far worse horror films. Kelly McGillis (Top Gun, Stake Land) isn’t asked to do much and so she doesn’t do much. Her aging-TV-actor-turned-healer/psychic daintily waves off any hints of supernatural danger until the somewhat pulse-pounding climax, after which she continues being her enigmatic and ethereal self. The event that finally does send Claire and Luke into a frenzy is so tame and silly, one wonders if the audience is supposed to laugh or be frightened. On this point, I
also have ask: why was this movie written to be rated R? It has three, useless, interchangeable F-words and some cheesy scares. There was no reason to eliminate a younger audience for The Innkeepers. Odd choice, if you ask me.
The Innkeepers had the unpleasant job of being my first horror film viewing since The Cabin in the Woods, a far better and more evolutionary movie if I ever saw one. Ti West obviously has a different goal in mind with The Innkeepers, but he still achieves it only aesthetically and with a shallow sense of the story and character that lies beneath a good horror film’s draw. What could have been a salute to classic horror filmmaking of old falls victim to mediocre writing, a lack of real scares beyond played-out loud noises and jump scares, and a structure in which the unsatisfying ending does not serve as payoff for the slow burn of the narrative.
Rating: A lackluster and overlong homage to classic ghost stories. (5/10)
The Blu-Ray for The Innkeepers is barebones regarding features. A seven-minute Making Of is present but mostly shows the cast and crew messing around on set. There are two commentary tracks available. One features Ti West, his producers, and the sound designer while the other has West and his two leads, Paxton and Healy. Each runs for the duration of the film.
It is difficult to give the Blu-Ray a definitive rating, since the audiovisual work on the disc is actually very nice. The black levels bring out the shadows and contrast, two primary tools of any horror filmmaker. The picture is otherwise generally crisp but not incredible. The audio is the best part of the Blu-Ray. Quiet moments are dead silent, the dialogue is clear, and the sound effects (for better or worse) are loud and defined. In fact, prior to starting the film, the disc asks that you turn up the volume to receive the intended experience. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and added a few bars to my TV’s volume level.
Blu-Ray Rating: If you’re going to watch the movie, the Blu-Ray is the best way to watch it. (7/10)
The Innkeepers will be released on April 24, 2012 from MPI Media Group and Dark Sky Films.
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