The Innkeepers

Going from the spastic, scatterbrained haunting of Grave Encounters to the very focused, snails paced haunting of The Innkeepers is pretty jarring but very welcome.

The two last employees at the Yankee Peddler Inn try one final time to find evidence of the ghost of a woman, who after passing away her body was stored in the basement for three days. The story and the acting are all very believable, along with the relationship between the two employees. They have their little games, their own in jokes.

Its not crazy over the top with the haunting, its quiet and simple like a very traditional ghost story. It nice.Their camera is currently at the shop so they must only rely on EVP for their investigations.Clair starts one night, first in the laundry room where she gets nothing. She moves on the the ballroom, she sits quietly, asking questions and listening for responses. She hears the piano in the lobby faintly playing. She removes her headphone, nothing, puts them back on, piano. She creeps into the lobby, the piano gets louder and louder, finally she stares at the piano, not a key moving yet there is sound. And SLAM! The keys jam down and she runs frightened.

The duo goes over the tapes, trying to figure out what is going on. They analyze and go over it baffled. But they had some evidence. They delve deeper, looking toward one of only 3 guests in the inn, a psychic. She tells Clair to avoid the basement, that it is bad, that they should leave. Clair doesn't listen.

After drinking a bit, Clair and Luke head toward the basement. They begin another EVP test, this time the ghost effecting Clair more. She watches as the ghost appears behind Luke, he runs, horrified. Clair chases after him, he tells her he lied all those times, telling her he had never actually experienced anything. He then leaves afraid and leaves Clair alone in the inn.

Things go bad fast as Clair finds that the old man that was staying there had committed suicide in his room. This kicks off the paranormal activities and spirals out of control as Clair finds herself down in the basement.

Its tense, its slow, its good. I know that the snails pace isn't for everyone, but I enjoyed the slow burn and genuine nature of the movie. The characters were great and well developed and the focus was sharp.