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A quick note of welcome to Bryan Kish. Been looking for someone to add to the team for a while now and out of no where comes Bryan. I think you'll like what he has to say. Many thanks to my good friend Patrick Desmond who pointed Bryan in my direction. Hopefully we'll be seeing lots of Bryan around the site.
Dave
After achieving mild success with his last horror film, 2009's The House of the
Devil, talented genre director Ti West takes viewers on yet another
eerie and suspenseful-- though not as scary-- journey within the haunted
halls of a soon-to-close hotel with a macabre past in The Innkeepers.
The Yankee Pedlar Inn serves as the setting for The Innkeepers. The
location is perfect for West, as it allows him to really dictate the mood of
the film from behind the camera. The fictional hotel, set in Torrington,
Connecticut, has an incredibly organic feel about it. Similar to the
house used in The House of the Devil, the inn's out-of-date style (we're
talking early 20th century here) and decaying walls add a level of
quiet eeriness that even permeates scenes which take place during the day.
Using the "all the rage right now" premise of ghost hunting, West is able to satire current evil spirit movies and pay homage to haunted house movies of the past all in same film. Sarah Paxton and Pat Healy play two bored, disinterested
late-twenty-somethings, whom, when not busy with the daily chores of the
hotel, moonlight as "ghost hunters". Both are obsessed with the notion
of capturing some form of paranormal activity (no pun intended) on tape.
When working, if you can even call it that, Paxton and Healy
exchange light and witty banter about their lives and ghostly encounters
they've personally had in the hotel. The dialogue between the two keep
the film humming along and really give the movie its greatest strength.
By
spending intimate time with the main characters, getting to know the
nuances of their personalities, the viewer has no choice but to take a
vested interest in them. But whether you like them or not, well, that is
entirely up to you. Paxton's rants border on whiny and her acting is
stiff and awkward at times. Healy is easily the stronger acting link of
the two.
Kelly McGillis should also be given credit for her performance as a washed up actress who has the power to contact the dead.
With his main characters strongly established, West is then free to turn
the last day of operating business for The Yankee Pedlar Inn into a
suspenseful and gory ghost tale. The Innkeepers borrows elements found
in classic 1950's haunted house movies and Stanley Kubrick's The Shining
to great success. If one scene, which takes place in a specific room in
the hotel, doesn't make you jump out of your seat, perhaps you should
consider giving up watching horror movies altogether.
While not as dark or visceral as The House of the Devil, The Innkeepers
is a welcome change of pace from the cheap thrills haunted house movies
that are currently polluting the horror genre. West, instead of going
for the easy scare or leaning on the crutch of "found" home video
recordings, proves that even with a low budget it is still possible to
scare up a creepy atmosphere the old fashioned way in modern times. I recommend giving The Innkeepers a watch, at the least, your stomach will thank you for Mr. West's steady camera work.
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