One Last Stop at the Yankee Pedlar Inn

 

2020 has been a year. I started this year on a mission of dedicating 2020 to the films that are considered near and dear to the blog, have been showcased and highlighted times in the past, and almost all will remain here as I focus on newer content in the future. The Innkeepers (2011) is a blog favorite. I wrote about it as recently as 2018 for a gimmick called Halloween diary. Gosh, this dates back nine years. Hard to fathom that. I remember the anticipation of this after Ti West's The House of the Devil (2009). I saw Ti in an interview about a festival reception of The Innkeepers, and he seemed to feel good about the feedback he received. Once it hit the mainstream, mainly upon release on DVD, the film never really achieved that same cult following and response as House/Devil. That's too bad because I personally took a shine to it from the onset and The Innkeepers remains a near annual October revisit.

I had plans for The Shining (1980) upcoming so I thought this film would be a nice precursor to that. It's more understated, with an approach that fits Ti's reputation for slow burn, purposely gradual, cues of heavy score balanced with quiet, silence and disquiet, an underlying understanding that something bad could happen and most likely will happen. 

Ti gives us ghosts, and Madeline O'Malley turns up a few times. So he doesn't totally go for the sounds and silences approach completely, where what you don't see but hear occasionally can be just as effective as unloading Blumhouse jump scares. You get the dark basement, the elder visiting to stay at the inn which is the place of his honeymoon one last time, Paxton finding him dead from suicide in the bathtub, and his "return" causing her to trip down stairs, in the dark, as the ghost bride draws towards her.

Ti does plants seeds like the chained/locked basement doors in the garage, McGillis warning Paxton about the basement, Madeline repeatedly showing herself to Paxton, and Paxton experiencing paranormal events like ghostly visitations and strange sounds such as the piano.

I personally love this for the place itself and how Paxton, who I adore in this, navigates the Inn. Healy as the paranormal site creator and supposed aficionado Paxton works with at the Inn has that sarcastic, pessimistic, bullshitter personality going but she has exuberance and chutzpah, probably the main reason he hasn't already ditched the search for ghosts hobby. She goes to the dark areas of the inn, seriously mics the space for sound proof, willingly walks towards the ominous rooms hoping to record the paranormal. So the tragic irony she might become the very ghost she herself sought evidence bookends the film with an unfortunate fate seemingly destined...McGillis and Healy try to get Paxton out yet fate seemed to intervene. Well Madeline and the suicide ghost of George Riddle intervened. The Inn is very much a star as Ti intended and Paxton, to her credit, holds the film with her likeable presence. She's a young woman sort of needing to unstick herself and figure out what's next. With the Inn closing she would have to figure that out, but her pursing Madeline proof is the mistake. It was just supposed to be a weekend thrill.