A review of "The Innkeepers"

Confessions of a Film Junkie: A review of “The Innkeepers”

By: Brian Cotnoir

     Normally, when I write a review about a film that went straight to DVD it’s to rant and rave about how stupid it was or how much I hated it, but not this one.  I actually enjoyed the horror/thriller “The Innkeepers”, which I’m still pretty surprised at because the film has a pretty rudimentary horror plot, and yet I still found myself impressed with how much this film pulled me into its story.        

So the story to “The Innkeepers” goes like this: The Old Yankee-Pedlar Inn is closing down after over 100 years and business and since it’s the final weekend, the Manager takes off and leaves two young employees/friends, named Claire and Luke, in charge of the Hotel.  Claire and Luke want to make their last weekend at the Hotel a memorable one.  The two friends are both amateur Ghost Hunters, and they decide that since the Hotel is practically empty (except for a couple guests) that they are going to try and contact the spirit of a woman named Madeline O’Malley, who many have told them haunts the Yankee-Pedlar Inn.  Claire & Luke want to desperately make contact with Madeline’s spirit, but has their ghost hunting escapades may or may not have upset the restless spirit.      

Even though the story to the film has been done many times before, and the plot does get to be predictable at some points “The Innkeepers” does have a few thrills.  Most of the scares in the film are jump scares, and they are very predictable, but I will admit that even when I knew a jump scare was coming I still jumped, and I think that was a good thing.  “The Innkeepers” also has some great make up and special effects.  I know I said “Holy Crap that is awesome” aloud a few times while watching this film.  The film has also a lot of great build-up. I actually found myself tensing up quite a bit while watching it.  The Hotel’s pretty cool too.  I would actually describe the Yankee-Pedlar Inn as very similar looking to the Hotel on Toluca Lake in the video game “Silent Hill 2”.                           

    If someone asked me how I would describe this film I would say it’s like if Stephen King tried to write a sequel to the “Paranormal Activity” film franchise.  I think director Ti West did a great job with this film, and that fans of horror will enjoy watching “The Innkeepers”.