Review of The Innkeepers (2011)

Hello all! You might notice that this review is of a horror movie. "But Sheridan, don't you review horror movies on Mondays?"
Why yes, yes I do. But as you can see, there was no post on Monday. I've been a little off the ball lately; my apologies. I'm getting back on track with this one though! So let's get to it! I reviewed a movie called "The Innkeepers," directed by Ti West.

"The Innkeepers" is about two friends who work in a failing small town hotel that's supposedly haunted. One of the friends, Luke (Pat Healy) claims that he's seen the ghost that haunts the hotel and convinces Claire (Sara Paxton) to help him with his website about paranormal activity by contacting the ghost that haunts the hotel and gathering proof that ghosts are real. Then strange things start to happen and they realize they were in over their heads from the moment they decided to go on the wild ghost chase.

Pros:
1. The cinematography was brilliant. It felt very much like "The Shining." They made good use of long, creepy hallways (a personal phobia of mine), textured walls and carpets, and loud, sudden noises. They knew how to set up a scene in such a way that made you feel uncomfortable right off the bat.

2. In the beginning, they tell you to turn up the volume on the TV for an optimum viewing experience, and I could see why. They relied a lot on the jump-out-and-scare-you stuff, and a lot of it was pretty brilliant and legitimately scary. I jumped at least 3 times while watching. However, I will be coming back to this comment in the cons section.

3. The two main characters are very natural together. It seemed to me like they were friends before this movie was made, because they were able to mess with each other and have fun together in a very natural, friendly way. They almost seemed like siblings, in a way, which made you root for them the whole time. Their enthusiasm about finding ghosts makes the viewer excited as well.

4. They used the actual Yankee-Pedlar Inn, which is supposedly really haunted. Knowing that it wasn't filmed on a set makes a horror movie so much more creepy.

5. There is a creepy guest that checks into the hotel and kills himself while Claire and Luke look for any paranormal activity. He later comes back as a ghost, and he's actually scarier than the ghost they spend the whole movie trying to find.

Cons:

1. Remember when I said that they really knew how to set up a good jump-out-at-you scene? Well, it would help if the thing that jumps out at you was actually scary. Nothing happens for half the movie; lots of stuff jumping out at you, not a lot of stuff scaring you.

2. The ghost that haunts the hotel isn't scary at all. The first time the audience sees her, it's a close up; which could be scary sometimes, but this time it just looked like a cheesy zombie bride with mediocre make up.

3. The social interactions between the main characters and other random side characters was not only unnecessary, but just awkward and weird. The only characters that were necessary to the story were the two main characters and a couple of the guests. For example, there's a scene involving Sara Paxton and a girl at a deli that did not serve the story. They set it up to be a very ominous scene, maybe involving foreshadowing, but instead they have an awkward and brief exchange, and nothing more comes of it. It's like they sold the whole movie short with brief and awkward conversations that don't mean anything to the movie.

4. The creepiness of the old man that kills himself far outweighs the creepiness of the main ghost, so it really makes the main ghost look like a joke. They should have used one ghost or the other.

5. The ghost doesn't show herself for three quarters of the movie. Nothing scary that happens is at the hand of the ghost; it's all completely explainable. But when she does show herself, she kills Claire, and then goes away. The audience has no time to decide if there's even really a ghost in the hotel, and then she randomly kills someone in the end.

6. It's just not scary. There was a lot of good build up, but absolutely no follow through. And trust me, if I don't think it's scary, it's not scary. It was just a disappointment.

There you have it, folks! A scary movie in didn't think was scary. Who'd have thunk it, eh?