{"id":4182,"date":"2012-01-28T15:20:08","date_gmt":"2012-01-28T20:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=4182"},"modified":"2012-01-28T15:20:08","modified_gmt":"2012-01-28T20:20:08","slug":"film-innkeepers-the-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=4182","title":{"rendered":"Film: Innkeepers, The (2011)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Return to: <\/strong>Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>I<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Film: Very Good\/ DVD Transfer: n\/a \/ DVD Extras: n\/a<\/p>\n

Label: n\/a\/ Region: n\/a\u00a0\/\u00a0Released: n\/a<\/p>\n

Genre: Horror \/ Supernatural \/ Thriller<\/p>\n

Synopsis: Two clerks in a soon-to-be-shuttered hotel decide to make contact with the supernatural world with lethal consequences.<\/p>\n

Special Features: \u00a0n\/a<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

In The House of the Devil<\/a><\/strong> (2009), Ti West crafted a deliberate homage to the early eighties slasher films, and in that instant classic he nailed the music, fashions, and \u2018scope cinematography of vintage slashers, but he also found a balance between his keen interest in character banter, and the kind of slow pacing for which he\u2019s well-known, and not always beloved by some horror fans.<\/p>\n

West doesn\u2019t make homages per se, but he\u2019s meticulous in sustaining eerie moods by manipulating open spaces within the wide \u2018scope ratio, and prolonging moments of unnerving nothingness before a simple shock, usually punctuated by a loud sonic effects (a cheap effect, but always successful when piped through a theatre\u2019s robust 5.1 system).<\/p>\n

The Innkeepers<\/strong> follows the same slow-build in which characters hang out for a while before they\u2019re teased and eventually immersed in some horrific menagerie. The film\u2019s premise is wholly sound \u2013 two clerks decide to have fun on their last weekend on the job and capture \u2018proof\u2019 of the ghosts that haunt The Yankee Pedlar Inn, a little house that grew into a block-sized hotel that\u2019s slated to be shuttered.<\/p>\n

West doesn’t state any specific time period, but judging by the d\u00e9cor and dead tech, it\u2019s safe to assume the film\u2019s two hotel clerks are trapped between the years 1998 – 2000, because the most sophisticated computer at hand is a chunky laptop running Windows 98 (or XP, with a classic design layout). The tape recorder that college drop-out Luke and waifish Claire use to capture otherworldly sounds transgressing into their reality is a beat up clunker, and Luke\u2019s personally designed website to house and exploit his ghost tales and A\/V proof of afterlives is a complete throwback to the basic HTML pages with facile GIFs used by start-up web designers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a geek thing, but certainly if set in and around 1998, there’s less convenient gear which would easily save the pair when they realize the hotel where they\u2019ve worked together for a while is wholly haunted. No one has a cell phone to instantly call for help, and no social media with which the characters can manically interact with concerned fans and detail their final efforts towards achieving instant fame as self-made ghost hunters.<\/p>\n

Like House<\/strong>, the shock stabs aren\u2019t prolific, but they do pay off, even though it\u2019s fairly clear what\u2019s coming down the pike. An example of classic teasing \/ cheating has Claire setting her head down to sleep while Luke keeps mans the counter downstairs in case of a last-minute pop-in by a corporeal guest, or the ghostly dead bride Madeline (I Sell the Dead<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s attractive Brenda Cooney, seriously uglified with a rotting maw). In the shock sequence, West has Claire facing the camera, and after she rolls back and forth and sits up and down, it\u2019s obvious someone or something will suddenly pop into an empty corner of the frame, sending her screaming down to the lobby.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the simple use of audio stabs, of which the most potent is a single discordant piano key that blasts at full volume into Claire’s headphones during her first attempt at sonically capturing Maedline’s movements.<\/p>\n

Sound designer Graham Reznick also crafted a grinding \/ droning effect that symbolizes the various presences within the hotel, which sort of gives composer Jeff Grace to either leave a scene unscored, add slight material as a lead-in to a stab, or create contrast using more overtly thematic material, like quoting the main title\u2019s fiddling jig performed by a Herrmannesque chamber orchestra.<\/p>\n

None of these tricks take away from the actors’ performances. Paxton (a dead ringer for Reese Witherspoon) and Healy are perfectly paired to evoke working \/ teasing buddies, and Kelly McGillis is believable & sympathetic as a faded TV star who tries to help Claire using the skills of her new career: a New Agey medium.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s slower first third not only establishes the character relationships, but like House<\/strong>, allows West and the audience to explore the innards of the hotel\u2019s architecture, which becomes important when all hell breaks loose. During the pair\u2019s final days as clerks, they\u2019re responsible for two guests, one of whom insists on sleeping in a room on the third floor where each suite has been stripped-down of its furnishings, and all elements of human comfort.<\/p>\n

West\u2019s film is essentially his riff on an old ghost story tale, with the occasional nod towards Stanley Kubrick\u2019s The Shining <\/strong>\u2013 if not in the use of roving camera movements that crawl up and down hallways and staircases, then the ornate chapter cards that introduce each story segment.<\/p>\n

Innkeepers<\/strong> is not for the Saw<\/strong> crowd; it\u2019s very much the measured thrillers West has been making since his debut, but he\u2019s refined his style with a more respectable amount of plotting. There are a few big holes \u2013 why Claire doesn\u2019t leave or call the police isn\u2019t clarified; and Luke\u2019s last-minute return to the hotel after an embarrassing admission before a decisive, panicked exit is tonally and plausibly absurd \u2013 but the mood is unrelenting once Madeline \u2018makes contact\u2019 with the pair.<\/p>\n

Like House<\/strong>, Innkeepers<\/strong> works best in a big cinema with a broadly arranged sound system, and it\u2019s probably West\u2019s most dramatically satisfying work to date.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2012 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References<\/em>:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Film Website<\/a> — Yankee Pedlar Inn<\/a> — Soundtrack Album<\/a> — Soundtrack Review<\/a> — \u00a0Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

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Amazon Links & KQEK.com’s Media Store:<\/em><\/p>\n

Amazon.ca<\/a> —– Amazon.com<\/a> —– Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> <\/em>\/\u00a0I<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to: Home \/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews \/ I . Film: Very Good\/ DVD Transfer: n\/a \/ DVD Extras: n\/a Label: n\/a\/ Region: n\/a\u00a0\/\u00a0Released: n\/a Genre: Horror \/ Supernatural \/ Thriller Synopsis: Two clerks in a soon-to-be-shuttered hotel decide to make contact with the supernatural world with lethal consequences. Special Features: \u00a0n\/a . . Review: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[1056,33,1059,1058,1057,255],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-15s","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4182"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4182"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4185,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4182\/revisions\/4185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}