For those hording toilet paper

When I was working second shift in August of 2012, for two weeks, there was a moment, late into the night, where a certain door that leads to the break room opens, complete with a creaky sound, and all I could do was twist my head in its direction with a gulp in the throat and eyes as wide as saucers. A similar experience for a colleague of mine who swore a light to the stairs of the building were off when she went into another room one night when she was working the late shift and, upon return, it was off. There could be reasonable explanations but the thoughts that are produced, the reaction of palpable fear, is relevant in that a movie like The Innkeepers, even prior to a definite spectral manifestation that appears, sounds that scrape or thump understandably bring pause and elicit the thought of “something out there”.

To tell you the truth, The Innkeepers really doesn’t attempt to truly affect you with chills until near the 37 minute mark. Until then, a great deal of the film is about us getting to know Claire (Sara Paxton) and the Yankee Pedlar Inn. Noises generally are produced by fellow help desk employee, Luke (Pat Nealy) who scares her, most of the time, unintentionally. The Inn has a total of five people. You shouldn’t wonder why the Inn is going out of business because the total number of guests is enough to indicate that the appeal of this place seems nil. It does look like an Inn from the past, a relic that is fit for tourist walks and fanciful storytelling. But there’s no volume and this is a perfectly suitable situation to base a horror movie (old school traditional at that) around. Little Sara all alone in the laundry room (even if nothing happens) or in the banquet room (darkened mostly with soft light giving the room just enough for visibility), all quiet except for what her microphone picks up, feeding her this static sound that soon reads melodic piano (maybe even some faint weeping). In the piano room, the piano doesn’t seem to be playing, and once Claire approaches it, a loud key bangs on its own which sends her speeding away to tell Luke.

Claire has to depend on an asthma inhaler, particularly when given a jolt. This can’t be lost on us. This little detail isn’t included just for the hell of it; there’s a reason a character has asthma in these movies. There was another key scene that didn’t leave its impact with me the first time. Maybe this is because I wasn’t aware of the outcome. I knew the asthma angle was important in Claire’s possible fate (or a fate that could be viewed as a reason behind her possible demise—so scared she loses the ability to breathe on her own—by the police and anyone who knew her), but the locking of the basement doors after she took out the garbage (a little moment that was quite funny; trying to get that garbage bag in the trash can is not an easy feat for her) didn’t exactly stand out to me as significant. But in my second viewing for October this year, it had me shaking my head in approval because it has Ti West pointing out that Claire, unbeknownst to her, seals her own fate without realizing it. Claire was just locking the basement doors, not knowing that she would later need to escape out of them. In essence, she contributes to her possible death.

Kelly McGillis plays a guest in the inn who was once a successful actress, leaving the industry, on a “psychic circuit” where she speaks in seminars. She is a bit bitchy with Claire when they first meet (Claire brings towels to her room by request), but soon offers her help in an attempt to communicate with the inn’s supposed resident spook, Madeline O’Malley (from legend, she killed herself in the inn). A pendulum necklace at her aid, McGillis’ Leanne Rease-Jones tries to work as a bridge of communication, but she forewarns Claire not to go into the basement. Drunk enough thanks to Luke’s offerings of beer, Claire (as expected) seems just inebriated so that checking the basement (in a last ditch effort to seize upon the opportunity to pick up the sighting of an actual spirit) is a viable option. One of the film’s key scenes has Claire from afar pointing her flashlight down towards the darkness, right at the bottom of the basement stairs…oh, the thought of “Don’t go down in that basement you idiot!” rings aloud in the mind.