Film: The Innkeepers

Director: Ti West
Genre: Horror
Source: USA (2011)
Rating: R
Location/Format: Netflix Instant Watch
Grade: C-

Well, as a film, The Innkeepers is all right, I guess, but that's about all I can say for it. The "closing weekend in a possibly haunted hotel" idea is one I don't think I've seen before, but it still feels not very fresh. There have been other haunted hotel movies, some great, some not so great, but most of them still better than this one. 

I think part of my problem with the film is that it feels cheap at times (not in terms of cost, but in terms of plot set-up and scares--why these particular people are at a hotel on its closing weekend in the first place never quite seems realistic), while at other times it's just plain boring. There are long stretches of nothing happening, and while that can be a useful tactic to up suspension, West doesn't seem to infuse those shots with dread the way other more talented directors would. We in the audience just feel--like the employees of the hotel--that we're just killing time until something interesting happens.

Also, I feel like the haunting is never really explained particularly well. "Don't go in the basement" the psychic warns, but why? Why are these spirits after one particular character? What's their motivation, and what do they want? Am I just so used to the tropes of the horror genre that I expect that if ghosts show up they want something? And does not giving us that mean West is doing something unique or just leaving me unsatisfied?

I don't know, I know I've watched worse horror movies this month, but I was just disappointed because I wanted to like it more. Average at best.