Ti West's New Haunted House Movie - THE INNKEEPERS

I was bored silly by House of the Devil, but I'll give this one a shot.

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I'll agree with that. But I so so so admire DEVIL's nostalgic feel that I give a pass to it's problems.

I actually just met Ti West and an Innkeepers event in Torrington, CT where the film was shot. Cool guy.

Erik, curious why you hated the ending of the movie.


****SPOILER****




The final shot of the film I thought was going to be a rip off of THE SHINING but when the camera turned to the doorway and just stayed there for maybe 20 seconds or so, I thought that was FANTASTIC filmmaking. I wish that instead of the door slamming shut it just would have cut to black after all that but man, I haven't been that scared just waiting for something to happen in a long time. It really got to me.

Ti West is great at crafting atmosphere and suspense

Really? See, that was the problem I had with House of the Devil. I know he was going for 80s horror pastiche, but I couldn't think of a single 80s horror film that was so SLOW and so devoid of suspense. It was SO derivative, the element of surprise was completely gone for me. It just made me want to watch the films it was trying to emulate so I could actually have some fun.

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Really liked this one but then I saw Kill List which took over as my scariest recent film I saw (but I disliked its ending). I like that the ending had ambiguity and I thought the pace was fine for this film compared with The House of the Devil (which I liked but I understand why people who were not into the last act of that film felt a bit cheated). I thought the script and the acting actually had little nods to the complaints in The House of the Devil. Your bored? Well, the characters are bored too because their jobs suck! Definitely enjoyed Sara Paxton as Ti West's lead than Jocelin Donahue. But nothing measures up to Tom Noonan and having an actor credited as 'Random Guy'.

It's a British film that got a limited US release IIRC (because I caught a review in the Post trashing it, but it has otherwise gotten good reviews). Incredibly intense and brutal through the first two acts but then it gets derivative of the genre and the seriousness and mystery of the film just slags. It oddly has a resemblance to A Serbian Film but don't let that steer you away. It is never that vile and I write that also knowing that some scenes in Kill List are not for the faint of heart.

The deliberate pace of the first hour or so left completely unprepared for the very brutal last act.

Really? I'm sort of surprised to hear that. I thought it was so cliche-ridden, I knew exactly what to expect. I was just frustrated that it took so LONG to get to anything interesting and when it finally did, it was paint-by-numbers schlock. Like a pad of horror b-flick Mad Libs where only the second half had been filled out.

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Let me rephrase Matt.

I knew exactly where it was heading plot-wise, hell the title kind of gives that away. What I meant was that I was lulled into thinking it was going to be more of a creepy/atmospheric payoff than a bloody/gory one.

So when the gore came the sudden shift in tone caught me off guard.

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