Director Ti West has become something of a cult sensation in recent years among the horror film-going crowd, beginning with his 2009 genre pastiche The House of the Devil. That film was consummately effective, if less than ethereal or skin-crawling. Nonetheless, it worked, and a film that takes all of its skill and put it out on the screen simply for the purpose of working these days is rare. But with The Innkeepers, West really proves his credentials as a horror filmmaker worth following, emerging out of his shell of repackaging horror to truly creating it.

As with many horror movies that work, The Innkeepers works primarily due to its atmosphere. This is a subdued film that emphasizes the tease over the money shot. It understands that what is implied works more effectively than what is shown. And this isn’t to say that it sacrifices impact for a sort of intellectual focus on the technique of teasing and limiting what audiences see: it is this very technique which allows the film to play well with the lights on in the head and to shoot straight for the bone. This is a slow-moving motion picture where every scene builds on and comes from the previous one. There are moments of humor to break the ever-increasing dread, but dread wins out in the end, as it always does, and as it should. Continue reading →