The Innkeepers 2011

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: The Innkeepers makes such youthful passivity seem nearly as treacherous as opening the cellar door. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: The trappings may look familiar, but "The Innkeepers" is a new twist on the good, old-fashioned ghost story: It's the bored-slacker horror movie. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Luke and Claire are guilty, above all, of being dumb and bored. Even their interest in the ghost that may dwell in the dark corners of the Pedlar seems tepid and lacking in conviction. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: A poky but blood-freezing throwback to the gothic horror films of the seventies, when ingenues moved tremulously down dark corridors without holding digital video cameras. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: This film has some of the usual scary cues and tense moments, but the setting, the old Yankee Pedlar inn, emerges as a more interesting character than any of the people. Read more

William Goss, MSN Movies: A decidedly old-fashioned haunted-house movie that sidesteps boredom with banter. Read more

Alison Willmore, AV Club: The Innkeepers suggests that West's greatest strengths may lie with the way he handles the meeting between normalcy and terror, and how characters cling to the former longer than is advisable... Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: "The Innkeepers" is a nifty little scary movie with slacker trappings, another winning deconstruction of a genre film by writer and director Ti West. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: For too long, this movie asks us to be interested in something that rarely in the history of the service industry has been sustainably entertaining: how dull certain jobs can be. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The place offers West plenty of odd, creaky spaces to inspect as the innkeepers' project of capturing ghostly events on video (a joking reference to the Paranormal Activity franchise) begins to bear fruit. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Each visit to the root cellar is an exercise in nerve-tightening; the first time we hear the overloud telephone at the front desk, it's both alarming and funny. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The filmmaker takes his unlucky couple of innkeepers seriously: He gives them living, breathing personalities, independent of their relationship with the house ghoul. Read more

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: The result is a largely entertaining picture with too few (and late-arriving) scares to satisfy the multiplex crowd, but one that will please many die-hard genre aficionados. Read more

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: There's a skillful appreciation here for the kind of subjective dislocation behind the best ghost stories, and in this era of bloody-disgusting, that kind of smart ambiguity is welcome indeed. Read more

Bruce Diones, New Yorker: West freshens up the horror genre with a distinctive, careful camera style and an ability to write with empathy and humor. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: "The Innkeepers" may have some of the retro charm of a boardwalk spookshow. But the ride is too long - and too few of the attractions seem to be up and running. Read more

Jeannette Catsoulis, NPR: So entertaining are the characters that you may leave the theater before realizing that the film's specters might emanate from somewhere much closer -- much, much closer -- than the haunted history of a Connecticut hotel. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: A well-shot but generically dull disappointment. Read more

Sara Stewart, New York Post: "The Innkeepers" is no masterpiece, but you may well leave with your nerves expertly jangled. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: I ask myself, how can any movie that calls itself a horror film also be boring at the same time? You will find the answer in The Innkeepers. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: There's a lot to be said for horror that doesn't hit you over the head with shock and gore and special effects. But if you're going to go that route, you need to have more than The Innkeepers delivers. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Sometimes with horror movies, it's all about tone. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: A nice change-up. Not much gore, but some good scares. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Ti West knows how to build suspense with quiet and timing. Read more

Ian Buckwalter, The Atlantic: We can't dissociate ourselves from the evil because, as in much of the best horror, what's scaring us isn't external; it's everything we fear seeing when we look in the mirror. Read more

James Adams, Globe and Mail: It's just too bad, innit, that The Innkeepers isn't much of a keeper. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Smart, funny and creepy, The Innkeepers does a great deal for Ti West's reputation as an up-and-coming filmmaker while simultaneously making rustic hotels seem a lot less quaint and charming. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: Hardcore horror heads may scorn its snail pace and shaggy-dog sweetness, but for discerning viewers, 'The Innkeepers' is a slow-burning charmer. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: A cellar sance is nerve-racking; less so are a few loud-noise gotchas that seem lifted from Hollywood's trick bag. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: To his credit, West eschews the gore and mayhem of most modern horror movies in favour of slow-building atmospheric menace. Read more

Liz Braun, Toronto Sun: Fans of the horror genre can expect to get all nostalgic about the 1970s feel to the action, which most certainly includes people going down the basement, all alone, in the dark, and that sort of thing. Read more

Joe Leydon, Variety: West and lenser Eliot Rockett deserve considerable credit for being able to generate suspense and occasionally spring scares without relying on familiar haunted-house atmospherics. Read more

Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice: In a genre lately given to gluttonous effects, West is the rare minimalist. Read more

John DeFore, Washington Post: Up until near the end ... you could mistake it for a low-key haunted-house comedy. Read more