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Critics Consensus: 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.
Critic Consensus: 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.
All Critics (118) | Top Critics (35) | Fresh (94) | Rotten (24) | DVD (4)
Hardcore horror heads may scorn its snail pace and shaggy-dog sweetness, but for discerning viewers, 'The Innkeepers' is a slow-burning charmer.
We 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.
Fans of the horror genre can expect to get all nostalgic about the 1970s feel to the action, which most certainly includes people going down the basement, all alone, in the dark, and that sort of thing.
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 film's greatest strength lies in the performances from Healy and, in particular, Paxton.
The Innkeepers starts unevenly, but ratchets up the tension until the explosively weird finale. And it will teach you to cover your freakin ears.
It's what your own brain fills in that makes The Innkeepers so chilling and effective, and [Ti] West knows it.
The indie king of the slow-burn horror flick is back, and this time Ti West is bringing along an unexpected dose of wit, warmth, and weirdly effective character-based comedy.
What finally sells The Innkeepers is the fact that the payoff really pays off.
A suspenseful and well-crafted old-fashioned ghost story.
Another display of talent from Ti West, who better than many understands that more efficient than the scares is the tension that comes from the waiting and from what we don't see; he's just not so skillful though in providing a payoff worthy of all the buildup.
Super Reviewer
After seeing high reviews and many horror fans praise this movie, I must say I was pretty disappointed. I loved Ti West's House of the Devil, but this isn't remotely on the same level as that. They both are throwbacks to before horror movies were more about gore and jump scares, but the difference is that The Innkeepers doesn't have likable characters and is much more of a slow burner than House of the Devil. I was so bored for the first hour that I was just hoping something interesting would happen. There's three chapters and an epilogue, with each chapter being about 30 minutes. It wasn't until chapter three that I was interested at all. Add in the fact that it isn't scary at all and you have a well made, but flat film that didn't resonate with me. Others will love its old school vibes, but I would rather recommend them House of the Devil than this.
A pair of hotel clerks decide to investigate the legend of a ghost said to haunt their hotel in the last days before it's closed; they'll wish they hadn't. Old-fashioned ghost story that's well-made but too slow paced and low key for most horror fans.
[img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon13.gif[/img] 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.
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