Ti West’s ‘The Innkeepers’ (2012) Some Guests Never Check Out – Retro Review

Released in the US on February 3, 2012, The Innkeepers is one of my favorite films. The premise is simple but I love the psychological thrills of this film. It’s one I revisit quite often, and even though I know what happens, the film still manages to freak me out. It’s a slow burn, but it is so worth it. Going to a haunted hotel on its last weekend… what could possibly go wrong? Let’s take a look back at Ti West’s The Innkeepers!

Film Synopsis:

During the final days at the Yankee Pedlar Inn, two employees determined to reveal the hotel’s haunted past begin to experience disturbing events as old guests check in for a stay.

The Innkeepers was written and directed by Ti West (The House of the Devil 2009). The film stars (Cheap Thrills (2013) alumni Sara Paxton as Claire and Pat Healy as Luke, as well as Kelly McGillis (Top Gun 1986, Stake Land 2010) as Leanne Rease-Jones, Alison Bartlett (Sesame Street TV series), Lena Dunham (American Horror Story TV series), Jake Ryan (Moonrise Kingdom 2012), George Riddle (Arthur 1981), and Brenda Cooney (The House Of The Devil 2009).

I love this film about a haunted hotel is in its final weekend before being closed forever. Two employees are stuck working while the owner is in Barbados. The guests consist of a mother and young son, a former actress in town for a convention, and a widowed old man who wants to stay in the honeymoon suite that he and his wife stayed in years prior.

It seems like this will be a boring weekend. Luke (Pat Healy) has set up a website about the haunted hotel and the encounters they have witnessed. He and Claire (Sara Paxton) have been trying to get a recording of a female ghost they suspect is haunting the hotel. On this last weekend, Claire does in fact get a recording of the woman. From this point, some really intense and strange things happen, all culminating to an ending I didn’t see coming.

I love anything paranormal and The Innkeepers is one of my top films in that genre. The film is a tight and suspenseful psychological thriller with some classic jump scares added in for good measure. The cast is well meshed and believable and makes the movie enjoyable.

Trivia facts courtesy of IMDb:

• The movie is filmed at the actual Yankee Pedlar Inn in Torrington, Connecticut.

• The actors, director, producers and film crew all resided and ate at the hotel while they were filming to keep production and travel costs down. Sara Paxton has mentioned rolling out of bed in the morning and being on set within five minutes. The older members of the cast admitted that the stay at the hotel was slightly frustrating as most of the younger crew members liked to party at all hours of the night and the noise would carry.
• The inhaler that Claire uses was actually painted beige and brown for the film, as Ti West didn’t like the look of the inhaler that the props department had obtained. The inhaler was set up to spray a candy-flavored breath freshener into Sara Paxton’s mouth so it could be used realistically but would taste pleasant.
• Shot in seventeen days.
• The Yankee Pedlar hotel, where the story occurs and was filmed, is reported to be truly haunted by several spirits. Some of the key shots were actually filmed in the most haunted rooms in the hotel, and crew members claimed to have seen and heard things that couldn’t be explained.
• In the scene where Luke (Pat Healy) puts on the jump-scare video for Claire, actress Sara Paxton was genuinely frightened. Her reaction is genuine, as she hadn’t seen the video before — the shot was only filmed once. While recording the commentary, she still jumped.