I enjoy “scary” movies.  I like genuinely scary, nightmare-enducing movies along with gory or psychological scary movies as well as the cheesy ones you love to hate. I also like to support indie films so when nothing else looked good in the Redbox selection, I rented The Innkeepers.  The cover looked good, the premise looked good, and as I said, it’s indie and I wanted to throw some of my dollars their way.

The Innkeepers-Some guests never check out

There’s nothing wrong with a little tension-building but after twenty minutes of setting up the story, I worried that this was going to be one of those movies which saved all the action til the last ten minutes. It’s a short film so I wasn’t too annoyed…yet.  The female lead , who looks alarmingly like a young Reese Witherspoon, needs a few more acting lessons but she wasn’t a total wash. Yet as the film drudged on with very little scares, I began to feel let down.

There are characters introduced who do absolutely nothing to forward the plot nor add any sort of interesting element to the story. Speaking of story…why would an independent filmmaker spend all this money on a film and not spend time on the actual story?

Film 101: nothing is wasted. Don’t show Claire with that inhaler unless it adds something to her character or will prove to be important to the plot later.  Don’t waste your time with the Tiny Furniture girl at the coffee shop unless it’s shaping an existing character or storyline or you are introducing someone I need to pay attention to.  Why was Gina from Sesame Street there? What purpose do she and her son serve within the universe of this film?

Hey, I know! Let's go down into the basement!

Just so you don’t think I’m a total grump, I don’t mind when a movie makes me ask questions. I like movies I can’t figure out. But this was just sloppy. Not edgy, arty, “what does it all mean, Basil” confusion and misdirection. It was lazy and ill-conceived.

(Spoilers be here!)

Yes, we all know the horror film canon. Characters will do the opposite of what you, a normal person, would do in their situation. Why would Lee go to even the bottom of the staircase in the basement if she knew and had previously warned Claire not to go down into the basement? And later, when Claire is calling out to Lee, who she knows is upstairs packing, why does Claire go into the basement? Why would she think Lee is in that stupid basement? Come the fuck on. At least have some sinister reason for why Claire is drawn down there.  And at the end, why does the cop have to look one more time, and grimace, at the bloody face of Claire on the gurney? Was it merely another (sloppy) way to show us who it was on the gurney? We didn’t need to see her hair because we saw her shoes. We know who it is!

(Spoilers be gone!)

Disappointing though it was, I was cheered to see Kelly McGillis show up, looking her age and appearing to have a little fun.  Too bad she didn’t have too much to do.

Just in case you are one of those “have to see it for myself”  people, here’s a trailer, which shows you all the best bits from the film and makes it appear far more interesting and scary than it is.