Director: Ti West
Cast: Sara Paxton, Pat Healy, Kelly McGillis
Screenplay: Ti West
101 mins. Rated R for some bloody images and language.
Just about every time I watch a Ti West (V/H/S, In a Valley of Violence) film, I end up falling asleep the first time and having to rewatch. It isn’t that I find his films boring, but I tend to watch them late in the night. So for my second attempt at The Innkeepers, I watched it in the afternoon.
The Innkeepers is the story of the Yankee Pedlar Inn and its last weekend open. Clerks Claire (Sara Paxton, Aquamarine, Cheap Thrills) and Luke (Pat Healy, Compliance, Small Crimes) are both into the paranormal and would like one last chance to prove the existence of Madeline O’Malley, a rumored spirit who may or may not reside within the hotel.
The Innkeepers is very…meh. I feel like the film has no direction, it kind of meanders about, and some of the “plot” can be torn up rather easily. The characters are somewhat engaging but they just don’t have anything to do and there isn’t enough given to them to chew on. Kelly McGillis (Top Gun, We Are What We Are) is rather wasted, though, as her character is written very one-note and uninteresting.
The biggest problem with the film is that it feels like two halves that have been stitched together, and neither half is successful. The first half has comedic bits that fall flat, and the last half fails to scare.
Ti West’s The Innkeepers just doesn’t work all that well. I wanted to like it, but sadly, this is a film for falling asleep.
2/5
-Kyle A. Goethe
For my review of Ti West’s The House of the Devil, click here.
For my review of the anthology film The ABCs of Death, click here.
For my review of Ti West’s The Sacrament, click here.
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