Movie Review: "The Innkeepers" (2011)

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Movie: "The Innkeepers"
Director: Ti West
Year: 2011
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour, 41 minutes

The Yankee Pedlar Inn is going out of business. Its last two employees, Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy), are obsessed with the supernatural and believe the inn to be haunted. They stay at the inn during its last few days of operation and investigate the paranormal history of the establishment. Meanwhile, a couple of unique quests check in: a former actress turned clairvoyant Leanne Rease-Jones (Kelly McGillis), and an old man (George Riddle) trying to rekindle nostalgic memories.  

If you notice below, there is a distinct difference between the IMDB rating and the Rotten Tomatoes rating for "The Innkeepers." Now, the only reason we include these ratings in our reviews is to give you a baseline for what critics say versus what the public at large says. We know there are nut-hugging fans and bitter haters out there, as well as uptight critics who are only reviewing things a certain way because of their own potential biases, so take these "ratings" with a grain of salt. Nonetheless, we proceed.

Sara Paxton plays wide-eyed true paranormal believer Claire. Pat Healy is her super hipster friend and co-worker Luke. Claire has experienced strange phenomenons at the inn where they work and Luke claims the same. They want to spend what few days they have left at the inn finding out the truth. Unfortunately, neither Paxton nor Healy are particularly convincing in their roles. Their performances are passable at best and that's about it. A pre-"Girls" Lena Dunham is also in this movie for some reason as a cafe barista, but by the end of the film, her role was so pointless you'll forget she was ever there. Kelly McGillis is also given a role as a clairvoyant former actress who is meant to be a developed character, but only serves to pop up and give Claire warnings of impending danger. Early on, Claire is very lighthearted about the whole investigation and Luke seems to be doing it as more of a lark. We understand that young adults often don't comprehend the severity of a situation and do things like investigate ghosts for fun as a joke, but their lighthearted attitude is transferred to the film itself and there is absolutely no tension or mood or anything scary at all in this film. For it to be billed as a horror movie is sort of insulting since it is nothing more than your typical, sub-par ghost movie with little to no thrills or chills. And for that matter, for the vast majority of the movie, literally nothing happens. Outside of Luke startling Claire a couple of times, it is about 45 minutes into the movie before we see any signs of supernatural elements, and then another half hour goes by before the director Ti West changes the mood and starts to try and build any tension at all. There is maybe one scene of decent imagery in the first hour and fifteen minutes and other than that, it's relentlessly dull and almost wholly lifeless. The final 15 minutes start to set the proper mood and display some good visuals, but by then, it's too little, too late. When it is all said and done, we are left feeling extremely underwhelmed, especially when the catalyst is the main character making the most mind-numbingly stupid move imaginable that makes no sense in the context of the story. We are baffled why this film has such high acclaim from film critics since they usually hate horror movies off the bat and this one is absolutely nothing special. For them to take this horse in a race is equally as baffling. It is not well written, it is not well acted, it is not suspenseful, or deep, or efficient in any way, and it definitely does not deserve an R rating.

My Rating: 3/10
BigJ's Rating: 3/10
IMDB's Rating: 5.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 79%
Do we recommend this movie: AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE!!!
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Two years ago, we were watching: "John Dies at the End"

One year ago, we were watching:, we were watching: "Halloween 3: Season of the Witch"