Ti West continues to deliver with his strongest film up to this point, a pitch-perfect little ghost story built on the strong lead performance of Sara Paxton.  Where House of the Devil attracted some (I think, apt) criticism for an excessive finale that somewhat let down the rest of the film, The Innkeepers is perfectly timed and perfectly formed.

In short, the film is a good old-fashioned ghost story: during the last few days of the Pedlar Inn, two employees, aided by an aging actress-turned-psychic-healer, investigate the possibility that the hotel really is haunted by a woman named Madeline O'Malley.

The Innkeepers is just as much of a slow burn as House of the Devil, although the multiple characters keep things lively and surprisingly light.  Healy and Paxton are both excellent as a pair of under-achievers who are great friends and a great comfort to one another.  The absolute believability of their friendship and their good-natured laziness and incompetences adds a very welcome element of comic realism to the film; without likeable and believable characters, it might have been hard to stick with the slow build through the first half.  Plus, Paxton's just such a likeable character; plucky, easily scared but not screamy or whiny.  

The cinematography is as effortlessly awesome as usual with Ti West, with most scenes covered in great static mediums and wides that fit the slow and quiet pace of the film.  West also gets a lot of mileage out of the very few locations (the film takes place almost entirely in the hotel, and then almost entirely in the lobby) with Shining-reminiscent Steadicams down the hallways.  There's no handheld, crank zooming, or any of that other bullshit.

One of the great aspects of the film is the sound design, done by Graham Reznick, a Glass Eye Pix aficionado and the director of I Can See You, another great horror flick.  Some of the later sequences involve the characters wandering around with those ghost-recording-audio-thingies, and Reznick does a great job building the tension, and delivering the scares, in these scenes.  Jeff Grace did a great job with the (sparse) music, as well.  

All in all, The Innkeepers is an absolutely great low-key little ghost flick.  Its fun and entirely un-cynical approach to familiar territory is extremely refreshing in an era of high-intensity, gimmicky, or otherwise desperate horror filmmaking.  The Innkeepers knows exactly what it should be, and delivers unabashedly.  It's great old-fashioned horror for a Friday night.

Props to the Duffster for giving Ti West a shout.
I'm a big fan of House of the Devil...
And I wish I could say the same of this follow up.

I like the two leads, they draw you into their mundane lives.
Without a doubt, I believed these two worked together.
They rock the "time clock chemistry".

I really dig 85% of everything West does... until the last 15 minutes.
When the script blows its wad, it felt like a studio sell out.
All the nifty set up and sumptuous photography gets jettisoned for the usual shocks.

And a good movie can be bollocksed by a rank ending.
Sadly, I think that's why this film isn't getting the notoriety that HotD did.

Even the beautiful retro poster can't get the bad ending taste out of my mouth.
http://www.fearnet.com/news/b21931_behold_gorgeous_retro_innkeepers_poster.html

Still, I'll keep an eye out for anything with West's name on it.

E.D.

After yet another abortion like this, I have to wonder who Ti West originally blew in Hollywood or who he continues to blow.

I love horror and I believe in giving everyone a fair shake, but this has gone way too far now with this guy.

You know...I can see some filming techniques that are kind of cool that Ti employs and I can even see some writing/story choices which are rather inter4esting, but the bottom line, end result is always the same with this guy - pathetic, duller than watching an ancient mummy sleep, and completely and totally devoid of entertainment value for the majority of the runtime.

House of the Devil had its moments, but even a diehard old school fan like me couldn't defend the monotony of nothing going on for well over an hour and that horrendous last act we were "treated" to.

Cabin Fever 2 was simply put one of the very worst movies I've ever seen and had zero redeeming quality.

And The Roost?  Ah man, don't get me started.

But, I heard good things about this one.  So I decided to give it a spin since it's now streaming on Netflix.  I sat through the entire thing in one sitting...well, laying, that is.  I was shocked at the snail pace.  I was appalled by the complete lack of story and plot.  And finally, just downright puzzled by the complete lack of scares and action until the final 10 minutes, but even that was lackluster at best.

This Ti West dude ain't no writer, boys and girls.  If you like him as director. fine, give the guy a script to shoot.  These "Ti West films" where he writes, directs, and edits, and whatever else he does has to stop.

Pure garbage, as far as I'm concerned.  Nothing here at all to spend even 4 minutes on.

Jeff,

You didn't like the leads?
I enjoyed their chemistry and off center humor.

Regards,
E.D.

Brett, at first they were OK for me, but almost immediately, the vibe that I got was one of misplaced humor or goofiness.

I think you know I am far from against chatty scripts or movies, but while watching this, I literally had the time to think about how meaningless almost all the banter really was.  Meaningless and misplaced, IMO.

Maybe the biggest downfall here, was the lack of story.  Maybe lack of antagonist or actual danger.  I don't know, but I gave it every chance imaginable and kept waiting for something to take off.

On top of that, I found many of the situational plot points and character actions/reactions to be mind numbingly stupid, especially the end when our main Protag goes back down to the basement to see if her new found buddy (a decrepit looking Kelly McGillis, who is somehow only 55, going on 70) is down there.  Without that, nothing whatsoever would have gone down in the finale.

And the fact that some 3 or 4 minutes were spent earlier with Paxton locking that door-thing for absolutely no reason (other than to lock her down there later on), was again, just so juvenile.

For this to work (for me) Ti-baby-West needed to establish a dark history and formidable Antag, which he sure as shit didn't pull off.

In all honesty, the more I think about this, the more I dislike it.  IMO, there isn't a single reason to sit through any of this, as nothing happens other than some creepy filming that leads to a dead end of nothingness.

I absolutely hated The House of the Devil which was one of the worst films I've ever seen...a piss poor rip off of Rosemary's Baby with all the plot taken out.

This is a similar plot....nothing much at all happens, till the end and this one didn't even really make sense.

However, I actually really enjoyed this one.

The two leads carried it with their chemistry.

It's sort of funny that a film that has almost zero plot can somehow manage to have such a nonsensical part as the lead going into the basement just after she's been warned she's in grave danger, but leaving that aside it was an enjoyable flick.

Agree with Electric Dreamer on this particular movie. Enjoyed the characters and pacing... up until the last 10-15 minutes when things just got kinda lame and cliche. 'House of the Devil' definitely had the better ending.

Still think 'Innkeepers' is probably worth one watch for people that enjoy slow-burners tho.