Review: The Innkeepers (2011)

by

24, January 2012Horror, Reviews

Cast: Sara Paxton, Pat Healy, Kelly McGillis
Director: Ti West
Country: USA
Genre: Horror, Comedy
Official Trailer: Here

Ti West is one of the few currently working “genre auteurs” that has been able to sustain my interest enough to actively seek out his work. The Innkeepers is the second film that I have watched from West, and I found it to be as satiating for my occasional escapism cravings as the first film from him that caught my attention, The House of the Devil. The House of the Devil and The Innkeepers are great companion pieces and they both mostly understand the basic elements that make a horror film work. They both have affable female protagonists that are charming in their earnestness, but slightly naive about the workings of the world. This departure from modern horror’s tendency to cast vapid cesspools of silicone and anti-charm in the female lead shows an understanding that it is more important to sympathize with your protagonist than sexualize them if you want to achieve any measure of accessibility for the “thoughtful” viewer.

The House of the Devil and The Innkeepers are great companion pieces and they both mostly understand the basic elements that make a horror film work. They both have affable female protagonists that are charming in their earnestness, but slightly naive about the workings of the world.

Sara Paxton does a fine job of combining youthful naiveté with earnest charm to create a realistic and likeable protagonist that we actually care about. She is socially awkward, but such is the case for many of us in the “Internet Generation”. She’s clumsy and uncertain of her place in the world, but one gets the impression that she has the potential to grow out of these traits. It is important that we like her, because most of the events take place from her vantage. She has moments of cleverness, moments of intelligence, and an abundance of awkwardness. Paxton does a great job of making this character fully-formed enough to act as an avatar for a generation of uncertain cynics that constitute much of the intended audience. We completely understand how kind she is when she is able to pretend to say nice things about her coworker’s paranormal investigation website. “Pretty good” is a far cry from the 1995 GeoCities layout that he ineptly conjured to showcase his vague findings in his black hole of style and substance, yet she’s nice about it, and for that we completely understand how nice she is capable of being.

Ti West is adept at taking a realistic young woman and creating unbearable tension from little more than sound effects and our natural fear of that which we cannot see. The Innkeepers is especially good at this and utilizes strategic sensory deprivation to heighten the tension and increase our engagement with the material. By making the titular innkeepers amateur paranormal investigation enthusiasts, West is able to use the tools of that trade to further increase the sensory deprivation effect without falling back on lazy contrivances. We feel isolated from the rest of the world with Sara Paxton’s Claire as she explores spaces that look and feel like they could have easily been lost B-reel footage from Kubrick’s The Shining. With the use of headphones and EVP (Electronic voice phenomenon) recording equipment, we are forced to occupy Claire’s fears and the headphones that she wears become our own. We are completely locked in her world, and we are given no reprieve from the tension until the jump-scare has been carried out. The formula of carefully constructing tension and then punctuating it with a punch-line to break that tension and move on to the next scene does get slightly tiresome, but it serves a purpose. Laughter and fear are two primal reactions to uncomfortable emotional stimulation that can create a more visceral and engaging cinematic experience if implemented correctly. They are fairly easy emotions to exploit, but the jaded and cynical among us are far too wise to fall for that… Until I jump directly out of my seat because of a well-timed and adeptly executed jump-scare.

With the use of headphones and EVP (Electronic voice phenomenon) recording equipment, we are forced to occupy Claire’s fears and the headphones that she wears become our own.

This is a great horror film for the savvy denizens of Internet culture. We’re wise and snarky, but we do like to be entertained. We can feel a scare being telegraphed several minutes before the payoff and we are familiar with all of the tropes, but we want to capture that innocence from days gone by, and we want to feel the emotions we felt when we watched the best John Carpenter films for the first time. We’ve all seen The Shining, and West knows this and uses it to exploit our expectations as he slams the door in our know-it-all faces. It takes a heightened attentiveness and awareness in a director to make something that can overcome the obstacles of expectation, and even if West’s films tend to fall flat in the final moments the film still works as a whole. Ultimately, a Ti West film is equivalent to a tantric cinema sex session with a skilled lover that has questionable hygiene, but you don’t discover the questionable hygeine until the last three minutes. It feels great the entire time, but you’re left feeling slightly disgusted with yourself after the climax.

77/100 - Ultimately, a Ti West film is equivalent to a tantric cinema sex session with a skilled lover that has questionable hygiene, but you don’t discover the questionable hygeine until the last three minutes. It feels great the entire time, but you’re left feeling slightly disgusted with yourself after the climax.

Matthew Blevins
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Assistant Editor & Senior Film Critic. Behind me you see the empty bookshelves that my obsession with film has caused. Film teaches me most of the important concepts of life, such as cynicism, beauty, ugliness, subversion of societal norms, and what it is to be a tortured member of humanity. My passion for the medium is an important part of who I am as I stumble through existence in a desperate and frantic search for objective truths.
  • http://twitter.com/NextProjection Christopher Misch

    Make sure to use protection!

  • http://twitter.com/NextProjection Christopher Misch

    It’s funny all the images of this film don’t make it look scary at all.

  • http://www.facebook.com/blevo Matthew Blevins

    It’s a slow burn, but that makes it more effective.  We are given safety and allowed to laugh with the characters so that our engagement can be exploited.  I don’t use “exploited” in a pejorative sense as it is all strategic and thoughtful.