spend a night with The Innkeepers

Last night I spent the night watching a low budget horror film, The Innkeepers. Now, when I say low budget this isn't a knock to  the film, it just wasn't a major release with very many effects. The thing is, though, that effects weren't really needed for it. The film is about an old inn that is on it's last weekend before closing down forever. The inn is rumored to be haunted by a woman named Madeline O'Malley, that one of the innkeepers, Luke (Pat Healy), has said he has come in contact with. The other inkeeper, Claire (Sara Paxton) decides to do some paranormal investigating herself and come in contact with a spirit as well. She believes that this is the spirit of Madeline, and after some more contact, some through an old actress turned 'healer', Lee (Kelly McGillis) she's warned to stay away from the basement. Of course in pure horror fashion she goes down anyways, and things can only freak her out even more.

Pat Healy and Sara Paxton as Luke and Claire hang out
at the front desk.

Going into the film I was pretty skeptical, the last thing I'd seen Sara Paxton in had been Shark Night and that was pretty bad. However, with The Innkeepers I was pleasantly surprised. There are really only a handful of people in the film and Sara is in a large majority of it, she's even the only character that has scenes by herself. The dialogue is probably the best part of the film, it actually sounds like two people having conversations in real life, which is a relief from all the hokey dialogue that seems to be plaguing horror films nowadays. My favorite part of the dialogue was the fact that there were several, clever and witty lines.

The one thing I didn't entirely like was the lack of action in the film until the very end. Sure, the build up was good, but for a movie that's 101 minutes long, I would have expected them to spread it out a little more instead of saving it for the last 5 or 10 minutes. When the film ends, it also ends rather abruptly and questions are left unanswered. Despite this, I still found the movie to be enjoyable, if only for the interaction between Claire and Luke, which includes a scene where the two have been drinking and Luke starts that 'awkward speech about how he likes her.' That speech we've all either heard, given, or both.

3 out of 5 stars