The Innkeepers (2012)
Average Rating: 6.6/10
Reviews Counted: 111
Fresh: 88 | Rotten: 23
It doesn't break any rules of the genre, but The Innkeepers serves as additional proof that Ti West is a young director that discriminating horror fans can trust.
Average Rating: 6.3/10
Critic Reviews: 32
Fresh: 24 | Rotten: 8
It doesn't break any rules of the genre, but The Innkeepers serves as additional proof that Ti West is a young director that discriminating horror fans can trust.
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Average Rating: 3/5
User Ratings: 91,685
Movie Info
From director Ti West comes The Innkeepers. Set in the venerable Yankee Pedlar Inn, which is about to shut its doors for good after over a century of service. Believed by many to be one of New England's "most haunted hotels," the last remaining employees -Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy)- are determined to uncover proof before it shuts down for good. As the Inn's final days draw near, odd guests check in as the pair of minimum wage "ghost hunters" begin to experience strange and
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Cast
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Sara Paxton
Claire -
Pat Healy
Luke -
Alison Bartlett
Gayle the Angry Mom -
Jake Schlueter
Young Boy -
Kelly McGillis
Leanne Rease-Jones -
Lena Dunham
Barista -
George Riddle
Old Man -
Brenda Cooney
Madeline O'Malley -
John Speredakos
Officer Mitchell -
Sean Reid
Medic -
Kurt Venghaus
Medic -
Thomas Mahoney
Medic -
Michael Martin
Medic -
Michael P. Castelli
Medic
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All Critics (112) | Top Critics (32) | Fresh (88) | Rotten (23) | DVD (5)
Hardcore horror heads may scorn its snail pace and shaggy-dog sweetness, but for discerning viewers, 'The Innkeepers' is a slow-burning charmer.
Top CriticWe can't dissociate ourselves from the evil because, as in much of the best horror, what's scaring us isn't external; it's everything we fear seeing when we look in the mirror.
West freshens up the horror genre with a distinctive, careful camera style and an ability to write with empathy and humor.
The Innkeepers makes such youthful passivity seem nearly as treacherous as opening the cellar door.
This film has some of the usual scary cues and tense moments, but the setting, the old Yankee Pedlar inn, emerges as a more interesting character than any of the people.
The place offers West plenty of odd, creaky spaces to inspect as the innkeepers' project of capturing ghostly events on video (a joking reference to the Paranormal Activity franchise) begins to bear fruit.
What finally sells The Innkeepers is the fact that the payoff really pays off.
A suspenseful and well-crafted old-fashioned ghost story.
Sometimes all it takes to make a decent little horror film is some good atmosphere and realistic characters.
Just enough depth of character and place that it's smarter than your average paranormal flick.
The acting is pretty good, and the characters are interesting, but the screenplay lacks the imagination it takes to elevate this story above the ordinary, predictable level of a common ghost story. It doesn't help this was also done on the cheap.
Entertaining creepy B horror pic.
When it delivers in horror and scares, it really excels with some shocking special effects and plays on sound effects...
Sometimes all it takes to make a decent little horror film is some good atmosphere and realistic characters.
'A perfectly creepy scarefest with standout performances across the board.'
Diverting and certainly worthy of examination; given all these pluses, I'd like to have seen more of West's compelling backstory threaded into his narrative.
An enjoyable chiller that isn't afraid to show less.
The pleasures here are small, but sure to be resonant for horror film fans.
A gruelling trial of audience patience.
The film is scary enough to keep you alert in the cinema, but unlikely to give you a sleepless night.
West continues to tread a delightful path between winking dread and the real kind, but his pacing's off in the build-up, partly because of the many, many opportunities Paxton has to flee out the front door.
It has some charm but is quite underwhelming.
The movie never entirely flatlines, and there are some funny touches, but it annoyingly fails to do anything with the kooky situation it elaborately establishes, and there are no real shocks or laughs.
Naturally, if you don't like the sight of blood on screen stay well clear, but, for the most part, this is an atmospheric, ghost-hunting piece with a greater emphasis on old fashioned chills.
Unmissable and one of the best films of the year.
West knows how to shoot an empty room and make it unnerving and has fun with characters hearing sounds through recording devices that aren't evident to the naked ear.
Audience Reviews for The Innkeepers
Super Reviewer
Ti West once again proves that he understands the mechanics of constructing horror from building up an eerie atmosphere to crafting an interesting character out of the "screamer girl" straight after some previously impressive films. He really is a great director, but unfortunately all The Innkeepers does is demonstrate that very fact. In this he intelligently crafts some good scares out of the simple use of camera movement and on a technical level he suceeds in building tension but what it all adds up to is a database of every horror cliche in the book that just happens to look polished and well thought out. As a result of this you can see the ending from about a mile away so i'd be lying if I didn't say I found myself bored waiting for the finale. I would have been fine with it if it didn't make one fatal mistake. Essentially it was one of those scenes in a haunted house horror where a character doesn't decide to leave endangerment and makes one of the most common sense lacking decisions possible. It was a genuine shame, the film started out so well, there were a few scenes that convinced me it was a horror comedy, it managed to be scary and funny simultaneously and that's something very difficult to pull off. That was very entertaining while it lasted though in the end I felt dissapointed simply because it's a film that does everything it can to engross you in the atmosphere but then makes one false move and lets go.
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Claire: Lets go to the basement, and find out what that fucking ghosts problem is.
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- Luke: I'm not negative, I am a realist.
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- Luke: Pessimism is just a higher form of optimism. If you expect nothing from people then you go through life being pleasantly surprised.
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- Luke: You want another beer?
- Claire: Yeah.
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- Claire: Do you think she's prettier than me?
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- Claire: Did you hear that?
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Foreign Titles
- Innkeepers, The (AU)
