![]() ![]() I think it blends the classic ghost story style with a solid modern twist. When I previously emailed West to see if The Shining would be an influence and whether the film addresses "reality" tv shows like Ghost Hunters, he wrote back: "This movie incorporates and comments on the trend of those type shows etc. Filming on location in Connecticut (where THotD was also shot) and entitled The Innkeepers, the film is said to follow "the last two staffers at a hotel that's going out of business"-a hotel that may have ghostly occupants. This is less a horror film per se than an essay on apprehension, superstition and what people's fears reveal – which recalls a classic of eerie understatement, The Haunting (1963), also big on sapphic subtexts.Next month, one of my favorite independent and more outspoken directors of late, Ti West, will begin shooting a follow-up to last year's breakout hit about Satanic Panic The House of The Devil. ![]() The way that West builds tension – through camerawork, pacing and brilliant use of sound – makes for a creepy, classy pleasure, even if the pay-off doesn't match the masterly set-up. In fact, this very female-centred film is altogether sceptical about the possibilities of heterosexual union. The scene touchingly depicts Claire's indirect confession of a crush and suggests why, when Luke professes his fondness to Claire, he's probably wasting his breath. There's a terrific scene in which she babbles adoringly at an unimpressed, vodka-chugging ex-star, Leanne, played by Kelly McGillis, both butch and maternal (the one-time Top Gun vamp recently, prominently, came out). Sara Paxton is terrific as Claire: gangling, wide-eyed, intrepid and a touch dykey. The Innkeepers feels like a comedy of emotional vulnerability that happens to have been cast in the form of a ghost story. I suppose this is what you'd call a mumblechiller, and it features a droll cameo by quintessential mumblista Lena Dunham, of Tiny Furniture and Girls, as a garrulous café worker. His leads are a winningly oddball duo, and the bored banter is top-notch: joking, bickering, getting drunk, Claire and Luke could have walked out of any low-slung, low-budget slacker comedy of the "mumblecore" school. Where most contemporary horror uses its young protagonists as interchangeable chainsaw-fodder, West wants us to enjoy spending time with his characters, sharing their fear. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
January 2023
Categories |