Review of The Innkeepers (2011) by Kris T — 11 Jun 2012

THE INNKEEPERS is a slow-burn, big pay-off ghost story in which writer/director/editor Ti West incorporates a unwavering camera and patient editing, smart and occasionally funny dialogue, solid acting, and some very frightening scares. This keeper of a sleeper horror pic knows how to ratchet up the tension and cool things down when need be.

In essence, THE INNKEEPERS is a tale of searching for things that shouldn't be searched for, hidden feelings, naivety, terror, and ghastly apparitions. Two young employees of the Yankee Pedlar Inn are the last to work on the last weekend of the Inn's existence. The clairvoyant Claire (Sara Paxton) and the realist Luke (Pat Healy) are these employees, who deal with a few last-minute guests before delving into the activity of paranormal sign-searching. What they find, in the Yankee Pedlar Inn, was far beyond what they believed they would ever see or experience...

Ti West is a director to be reckoned with in any genre, yet as he is a known horror aficionado West has taken up the big tricks of the film-making trade and found his own mark in them in the horror genre. An unwavering camera can be observed in nearly all his shots, unsettling, almost Sam Raimi-esque camera angles in his horror sequences, and edits in an amazingly creepy score from Jeff Grace in all the right places.

Sara Paxton has had a hit-or-miss acting career, as she has started and currently been involved in a slew of horror films from the past few years (ie: 2009's LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT remake, the godawful 2011 SHARK NIGHT). When she's matched up with a good director and a good premise, she'll commit to both whole-heartedly. She has done this in Ti West's THE INNKEEPERS, perhaps because she saw the promise and the skill in writing and directing that Ti West has earned. Personally, I am happy for how empathetic and relatable she is in this film as the female protagonist Claire. She, along with Ti West's direction, carry the film along.

The rest of the small yet focused cast play familiar roles with smarts and emotion. I have yet to see, after this film, a more committed and foreboding female medium from Kelly McGillis's Leanne Jones (outside of director James Wan's female medium in his very scary 2011 horror pic INSIDIOUS). Pat Nealy plays the realist, sometimes grouchy employee Luke well in THE INNKEEPERS.

Jeff Grace's score (having already worked with West on HOUSE OF THE DEVIL and scored Jim Mickle's 2010 gem STAKE LAND) is a big part of what makes the scares and suspense effective. As said above, it is amazing and it is CREEPY.

THE INNKEEPERS is a keeper of a sleeper slow-burn, big-payoff ghost story that packs in smarts, emotion, committed and solid acting, deliberately patient and skilled directing, an amazingly creepy score, all into a tightly edited package with very frightening scares. And when you see a horror film that can scare you in broad daylight, you know you're experiencing a very good horror film indeed.