First noises, then actual manifestations soon, the ghost of Madeline O’Malley (a grossly made-up Brenda Cooney) begins to resent the intrusion on her domain. Left alone, Claire experiences increasing degrees of supernatural happenings.
Two late arrivals are the only guests in the hotel on this final night: ageing actress-turned-psychic Leanne Rease-Jones (Kelly McGillis), and a withered old man (George Riddle), burdened by memory and longing. On the last day of trading, smart-alec staffers Luke (a droll, funny Pat Healy) and Claire (Paxton) have decided to indulge their passion for the paranormal and try to capture EVP readings to confirm once and for all the existence of the building’s supposed spirit. The establishment in question is The Yankee Pedlar Inn, a charming relic of Connecticut’s colonial past but now doomed for demolition. The focus here is on atmosphere and presenting the understandable dread of staying in an abandoned inn on the last day of its long and chequered existence. Having wowed midnight crowds a few years back with his ultra-scary freak-out House of the Devil (2009), writer/director/editor West tones down the splatter (a little) and macabre influence in his follow-up (finally reaching our shores after debuting over a year ago at SXSW, then screening at MIFF 2011). You can see a thinly-veiled repackaging of The Shining if you look hard enough, but as many patrons will be watching through their fingers, the similarities won’t matter that much over the course of this terrific ghost story.Ĭlaire is a fully-fleshed horror film lead, not a whimpering damsel-in-distress. The charms of leading lady Sara Paxton and the considerable genre chops of filmmaker Ti West make for a winning formula in the old-school haunted hotel fun ride, The Innkeepers.
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