THE INNKEEPERS - MIFF 2011

This is director Ti West’s follow-up to his hugely successful satanic horror film “House  Of The Devil”, and although he has continued in the same style of that film, with the slow-burn build-up, here he has exchanged Satanists with a more traditional gothic ghost story.

It is the final weekend of trade for the Yankee Peddler Inn, and the young hotel staff on duty, Claire and Luke, decide that they are going to get definitive proof that the place is haunted.   The fact that the hotel only has three guests makes this a lot easier than it would normally be.  Staying at the hotel is a young mother and her son, and an ageing television star who now in her later years has become a spiritualist.  For years there had been stories of a ghost that haunted the hotel.  The young girl apparently took her own life back in the 1800’s after being jilted at the altar by her lover.  The owners at the time feared that publicity of such an incident would destroy the reputation of the hotel, and instead of reporting the death and having the body laid to rest, they hid it in the basement downstairs.  Since then there have been regular sightings of this woman within the halls of the hotel, although there has never been any definitive proof which is what Claire and Luke are trying to achieve on this final weekend of trade.  Luke has even gone so far as to build a website (not a very good one) dedicated to the haunting of the Yankee Peddler Inn.

Like “House Of The Devil” very little happens for the majority of the film, rather Ti West creates an atmosphere of anticipation.  He understands that for a scare to truly work, the level of suspense must be heightened, rather than it just being a simple “boo” scare.  Another thing vital for a horror film to work is that we as an audience need to care for the characters in trouble.  West clearly understands this and while I say that nothing really happens in the film, this is not necessarily true, because he uses this time to develop his characters brilliantly and we really do care about them and their safety once the horror kicks in.  This is opposed to most horror films these days who just seem to introduce nameless characters so that five minutes later they can be killed.  I understand that people can find his style very boring, but personally I love West’s style.

As opposed to his previous film, West has included a lot of natural comedy between the two hotel staff members as the muck around with each other while combating the boredom of their job.  This creates a great sense of realism to the film, because let’s face it, what do you do when you are bored at work, you have a laugh with your workmates.  The performances by both Sara Paxton as Claire and Pat Healy as Luke are spot on and you instantly form a bond with these characters.  While it takes it time getting there, when the horror does finally kick in, the film begins to be much more serious, and it is white-knuckle good.  West has you on the edge of your seat through it all and it is actually very scary.

I must make mention of the camerawork used in “The Innkeepers” which is just stellar in its execution and classic in its style.  It appears that with each film West is getting more and more comfortable with moving the camera, and I thought what he did with “House Of The Devil” was outstanding, but he has taken it to another level entirely with “The Innkeepers”.  Being a ghost story, naturally sound and music play a very important role in building the suspense and West’s usual collaborators of Graham Reznick on sound design and Jeff Grace on the score do magnificent work.  Reznick especially I think is some sort of genius in his field.

Interestingly, the story for “The Innkeepers” came about when West was shooting “House Of The Devil” because while shooting that film, the cast and crew all stayed at the “Yankee Peddler Inn”, which is obviously a real place and apparently a lot of weird things happened at the hotel during their stay.  Also Kelly McGillis’s spiritualist character is based on Dee Wallace (who cameos at the beginning of “House Of The Devil”) who takes all of that psychic and spiritualist stuff very seriously.

Overall, I had a great time with “The Innkeepers”, it was a good old fashioned ghost story that was, importantly, scary.  If I was forced to choose between which film I preferred, I would still nominate “House Of The Devil” (I like my horror mean and nasty, with little laughs),  but it wouldn’t be by much, and importantly with “The Innkeepers” West has continued  to improve behind the camera.

3.5 Stars.