SXSW Review: ‘The Innkeepers’ Is Less ‘House Of The Devil,’ More ‘Scooby Doo’
Ti West has found a formula, and by god, he’s sticking to it. The indie helmer began in the world of micro-budgeted horror, where financial reasons necessitated a slow burn and eventual third act reveal. As his budgets have increased, his approach hasn’t changed, favoring this methodical strategy to the money-shot-driven approach by most modern horror filmmakers.
It’s admirable to see a filmmaker try to stretch, and while that built-in West strategy remains for “The Innkeepers,” he’s replaced the sense of atmosphere in favor of gentle workplace comedy. West understands bringing the frights out of the mundane, but in “The Innkeepers,” the Yankee Pedlar, a modest inn on its last weekend before closing its doors, is mostly used to convey a lived-in sense of everyday tedium.
The boyish, limber Claire (Sara Paxton) is in the middle of what her sarcastic coworker Luke (Pat Healy) describes as a “quarterlife crisis,” and, having dropped out of college, sees no future beyond the closing of the hotel. Because the inn has experienced such low traffic, the frequently-irritable Luke has set up a website documenting the history of a ghost that haunts the rooms. Enlisting Claire to help him explore the hotel by tracking EVP, Luke speaks of a single ghost encounter, which has fueled her still-skeptical interest. Because the ghost seems to be the only company around, wasting hours tracking the possibly nonexistent cracks and creaks of the underworld seems to pass the time. Luke owns a laptop to explore his internet porn interests, but Claire can only retreat to the coffee shop, where the chatty barista (“Tiny Furniture” star Lena Dunham, in a spirited cameo) takes every opportunity to overshare.
