Movie : The Innkeepers, or: A perfect blend of hope and despair
Link : The Innkeepers, or: A perfect blend of hope and despair
The Innkeepers, or: A perfect blend of hope and despair
The Innkeepers (2011)
Directed by Ti West
Directed by Ti West
***SPOILERS***
The narrow-mindedness among moviegoers and critics regarding Ti West’s The Innkeepers is an abomination to the horror genre. For so long we’ve collectively complained of the downturn in horror filmmaking, crying for the good ole days of John Carpenter and Dario Argento, yet here we have a prolific and finely tuned director who understands the ins and outs of the genre…and we feel content in brushing it aside. Perhaps The Innkeepers hasn’t catapulted West to Carpenter’s legendary status, but the subtlety, richness, depth and texture surrounding West’s minimalist horror film is not only a departure for the current state of the genre, but stretches beyond the capabilities of most films flooding cinemas today.
The buoyancy of the film will undoubtedly turn off most viewers, providing them a sole reason to dismiss an entire film. Although there’s no reason to defend the film’s whimsical nature (horror films are allowed to be jaunty too, ya know), it does provide a subject of discussion. The aloofness surrounding Claire’s (Sara Paxton) very real ghost-ridden situation provides both an insight into her character and a masterful play by West. Rarely does a horror film so finely and discreetly enclose its characters’ deepest fears and desires inside the depravity created by its external force (the hotel). Certainly Claire is an immature girl, stuck in a dead-end job with no legitimate plans for her future. When Leanne (Kelly McGillis) asks Claire what she “does,” she responds with a resolute, “I just work at the hotel.” The building blocks slowly create a character that never needs a bombastic, baggage-revealing speech to reveal how far Claire’s life has crept away from her and how her aloofness allows the comedic aspects of The Innkeepers to be less entertaining and more depressing.
Leanne also provides a connection to Claire, which directly coincides the with the supernatural horror elements controlling the film. Leanne was the star of Claire’s favorite childhood television show, creating a temporary youthful ambition within Claire and a longing for the past. As young woman caught in the years between adolescence and adulthood, Claire is just as riddled by the past that Leanne represents as the future the ghost bride embodies. Even more pressing, the deceased bride committed suicide, further placing a burden upon Claire’s slowly approaching unemployment. Claire visits a coffee shop and is forced to listen to a barista’s shallow teenage problems, building the tension so fervently that Claire snaps and leaves the shop. We see Claire unable to deal with the woes of teenage years, yet mentally unprepared for the prospect of adult life. And, as we’ll soon come to see, confronting the ghost bride forces Claire to confront her biggest fear. With Leanne contrasting her attachment to the past with the bride’s hold on the future, the banality of the downtrodden hotel comes to coincide with Claire's present unfavorable situation. Such a realization then causes the wacky antics to become less distracting and more heartbreaking, providing an outlet for Claire to disregard her own insecurities and simply indulge in a bit of fun.
The drastic change between Claire and Luke’s (Pat Healy) lighthearted shenanigans and the immediacy of fucking ghosts plays directly into West’s command of his own film and his grip over the horror genre. In West’s film The House of the Devil, his main character slips a hundred-dollar bill into a fridge door, which prominently sticks out while she dials the phone. As she roams the house, we constantly expect a shot revealing the bill has disappeared. Never providing such satisfaction keeps the viewer on his or her toes, creating tension at each and every turn, regardless if there’s actually anything to become tense about. Concurrently, downplaying the horror elements of The Innkeepers with whimsical humor allows those scarier moments to hold more resonance. The pure suspense created within the scene where Claire finds a piano playing itself is contrasted with Claire pretending to be a ghost as Luke listens to the recording. This scene directly feeds into Claire’s immaturity, but it also reveals how scary the original scene really was. We see such dynamics at play throughout the film. We believe Luke is gone as Claire desperately calls out for him, but he walks out of the bathroom unscathed. Claire believes she is about to discover a ghost, but Luke abruptly interrupts her. The reality of conventional life balances the supernatural moments, creating the constant tension that existed in The House of the Devil, yet taking it a step further by incorporating the deeper humane moments that bring Claire to prominence.
The film also reaches a deeper fundamental level beyond West’s past work by incorporating the environment so thoroughly. Claire being a girl incapable of paving her own future, it seems fitting the Yankee Pedlar Inn comes to completely dictate her final days (similar to the bride who took her own life years ago). Much like the hotel guides Claire from room to room and forces her to confront her greatest fears, West very much brings the hotel to life, creating an external force that very much feels like a character itself. The film moves slowly at first, but only to contrast the banality of the hotel with Claire’s current lifestyle: the dull colors, the narrow hallways, the unadventurous structure and the complete and utter forlornness—all infused with a little bit of mystery. The guests of the hotel add to the mystery, creating a community of people who long for the past and create an atmosphere of loners looking for meaning amidst a dull life.
And as the movie carries on, we learn more about the hotel as we learn more about Claire. She sits in the dining room with her amateur ghost-detecting equipment as the camera travels along the ceiling, providing a view from the dust-ridden chandeliers to reveal a cluttered mess of a room. Each of long, deep-focus shots creates a monstrous void encompassing Claire, allowing the environment to command control and dictate the mood. And once a sense of any given room is provided, each subsequent visit into those rooms creates an air of familiarity. As we travel from room to room and we gain a general understanding of the environment, our uncomfortably intimate acquaintance with the hotel builds along with our bond with Claire. With the hotel becoming Claire’s ultimate opponent, this creates a dynamic within the viewer that exists onscreen as well, providing a connection absent from most modern horror films. It also reveals the hold West has over his films, continually controlling the unrelentingly tepid pace and desolate atmosphere that builds and builds until our eventual climax resulting in Claire’s death.
And while West has displayed a knack for film that seems wholly removed from the genre, The Innkeepers shows the director has yet to reach his full potential. While the film is masterfully executed on the whole, there are moments West frees himself from such strict constraints and disassociates the consistency of the film’s mood from Claire’s situation. Much like The House of the Devil lost itself in bombastic horror clichés in its final moments, there are scattershot moments in The Innkeepers that point to West’s minor pitfalls. There are several whipping shots that shoot back to the classic horror schlock that inspired the director, but none of them provide an insight into Claire, only creating an unnecessary distraction amidst a slow-burning horror film. Combined with several canted angles that contradictingly both depict Claire’s drunken state and her fear regarding the ghost bride, there are several moments dictated by West that feel to stressed and misplaced to become notable director traits that separate him from his predecessors. But Claire reveals the ghost bride to be standing behind Luke, I’m pleasantly surprised (and gleefully horrified) that West never actually shows the ghost. He believes the action lies in the silence, not the storm. The Innkeepers may just have to be one of those films we appreciate down the road—a film that marked the first entry of a soon-to-be classic filmmaker.
Watch Free Movies and Tv shows online in HD quality
Watch Free Films and Network programs online The Innkeepers, or: A perfect blend of hope and despair HD Quality
Free Movie download and streaming The Innkeepers, or: A perfect blend of hope and despairWatch free motion pictures and Television programs online in HD on any gadget. Free Movies offers gushing motion pictures in types like Activity, Repulsiveness, Science fiction, Wrongdoing and Parody. Watch now.
0 Response to "The Innkeepers, or: A perfect blend of hope and despair"
Posting Komentar