THE INNKEEPERS: HORROR RETURNS!

I was watching a documentary on horror films in the U.S. the other day and while I watched I realized something. There were actually few if any true horror films are being made these days. Granted there are films made that qualify for the genre, but most are more obsessed these days with how far they can push the envelope, how much gore they can include and how disgusting they can make the world seem. Far too many have chosen to go the Rob Zombie route of showing us homes in decay where dirt is far more common than cleanliness. I for one would find it more terrifying to see a serial killer in a well kept home than the unwashed, unbathed louts living in trailer parks more frequently seen today. Then I watched THE INNKEEPERS.

The Yankee Pedlar Inn was founded in 1891 and has seen better days. The last weekend the hotel is to be open two clerks are working taking care of just three customers. Claire (Sara Paxton) is an early twenty something working at the inn with no outlook on her future. Luke (Pat Healy) is a laid back older guy who lives at home with his mother and has no future prospects as well. The pair has formed a friendship while working at the Inn and share an interest in the history of the locale as well. Said to be haunted, Luke has set up a web site based in incidents that he has recorded while working there.

On this, the last weekend, the pair hopes to finally catch something worthwhile to include on the site, a real paranormal happening that can be verified with two people on hand. Checking into the hotel we find a young mother and her son, staying to avoid her possibly soon to be ex-husband. Later we have a movie star who's seen better days, Leanne Rease-Jones (Kelly McGillis), here to speak at a convention nearby. Lastly we have an elderly man (George Riddle) checking in to recall the good old days when he came here on his wedding night. But the guests are secondary for the most part though they play important roles as the film winds down. It is the spirits and the search for them that make up the scares here.

Claire and Luke take turns watching the desk and taking care of the needs of their customers. When not working, they sleep or attempt to record EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon), recordings of spiritual voices in the room unable to be heard by the human ear. During the times when Claire searches for signs of the afterlife more happens than with Luke. It seems as if the spirits are trying to reach Claire for some reason.

Star struck by Leanne, Claire displays the usual fan klutz attitude. But later the two have the opportunity to talk. It turns out Leanne isn't in town to speak at an acting class or fan fair but to speak about her newest calling, healing via crystals and the like. Assuming the role of medium, she tries to help Claire with the search for the main spirit in the hotel, one Madeline O'Malley. Murdered and her body hidden in the cellar for 3 days by the owners of the hotel at that time to avoid bad publicity, it is said that Madeline continues to walk the halls of the hotel. In attempting to contact her, Leanne offers sound advice to Claire: don't go in the basement. Any guess as to where Claire goes?

Between bumps in the night, a piano that plays itself and several other scares the film does indeed offer some truly frightening moments as it plays out. The first third of the film offers little in the way of horror with the exception of a few jump moments, scenes where things make loud noises causing the viewer to jump. But as it progresses it tells a tale that evokes some haunting images and a story that slowly unfolds to bring about real scares.

The acting is wonderful here, especially from the two leads. They don't appear to be actors at all but two people who work at the most boring of jobs, leading boring lives in search of something else outside of their own level of comfort. When the world they seek appears to be coming alive, their terror seems real as well.

The movie is slow paced but wonderfully so, never rushing to get us somewhere but letting us take in the whole view of the hotel and its history given in bits and pieces. The need for gore is absent and that makes the scares even more disturbing. Horror films that allow you brain to fill in the gaps make for much scarier viewing than simple effects. This film offers the thrill of the old horror film and that's something it should be proud of. If you want to see how a horror film can be done right, then by all means check this one out.

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