Memorable, crazy movie

Fantastic!

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

If you're looking for an actual horror movie, this isn't it. Unless of course, you fast forward through the first hour and twenty minutes. The "horror" doesn't last very long in this movie. The initial 80 minutes is spent in what if's and supposes. The owner is off in the islands and will return at the end of the week. Which makes no sense since the place is closing permanently at that time. The owner should be on hand to make sure everything is going according to plan. Claire and Luke are the only employees remaining at the inn, which is a week from closing. Yet, neither of them are doing anything to prepare for the closing. They spend most of their time sitting at the front desk whining about their lives. It gets to the point, you want something to happen just to shut them up. The four final guests are nothing special. A woman and her son are staying there while the woman contemplates divorcing her louse of a husband. Kelly McGillis (whom I feel is only in this movie as a recognizable name)is Leanne Rease-Jones, who is an actress turned mystic in town for a conference. She carries a pentacle she claims connects her to spirits. Yet, you never actually see any flashes of these spirits, just inaudible whispers and her making faces whenever they "speak" to her. She keeps referring to "They", yet who "They" are is never explained. When the old man arrives, things finally pick up pace. Not much pace, but enough for one good scare at the end. Giving it a 4 because I am feeling generous.

The Yankee Pedlar Inn is closing after being in business for over a hundred years. Spunky young Claire (a winningly perky portrayal by Sarah Paxton) and her nerdy coworker Luke (a fine performance by Pat Healy) are the sole remaining employees left. The pair decide to investigate rumors that the place might be haunted.Writer/director Ti West relates the compelling story at a deliberate pace, makes excellent use of the sprawling hotel location, takes time to develop the main characters, expertly crafts a quietly unsettling gloom-doom atmosphere, and pulls out the terrifying stops at the bloodcurdling climax. Moreover, West warrants additional praise for eschewing graphic gore and cheap jump-out-at-you scares in favor of focusing instead on a gradually mounting mood of dread and unease. Paxton and Healy display an engaging natural chemistry in the lead roles; they receive sturdy support from Kelly McGillis as former actress turned kooky New Age psychic healer Leanne Reese-Jones, Brenda Cooney as unrestful ghost Madeline O'Malley, Alison Bartlett as an irate mother, and George Riddle as the mysterious elderly final guest. Lena Dunham has a funny bit as a gabby and annoying coffee shop barista. Eliot Rockett's slick widescreen cinematography provides an impressive polished look. Jeff Grace's spirited shivery score hits the spine-tingling spot. An on the money scarefest.

'Going out of business,' proclaims the notice on the door as Claire (Sara Paxton) begins her shift. Inside, the other employee of the Yankee Pedlar Inn is Luke (Pat Healy). To fill in their final days in the spacious building, they are determined to see if there is any truth in the rumour that the place is haunted and spend much of their time scanning the internet, as well as observing the security cameras looking for (and usually missing) any suspiciously haunting clues.Claire is a plucky, funny, asthmatic girl. Needless to say, she's a million miles away from, and far more likable than, the painted models that often strut their way through horror films. Equally, Luke is arch, cranky and in his own way, equally likable. He's real, and not the slick, slack-jawed beefcake champion of blandness that barely fills a vest on the set of more gratuitous, less compelling chillers.Events drag on far too slowly, I'm sure, for some viewers until we are reasonably convinced we're not going to see anything frightening (we are wrong, of course). On one occasion, Claire reacts to something standing behind Luke that we never even see.We meet two other guests: former actress and spiritually sensitive Leanne (Kelly McGuilliss), and the unnamed Old Man (George Riddle). While the fate of the latter is excellently handled and very shocking, the other glimpses of gore are actually fairly perfunctory, but what makes them effective is the build-up, and the apprehension we are fully acquainted with already. Director (and writer and co-producer) Ti Westhandles his tiny cast and low-budget with expert precision, especially when it comes to the characters.When horrible things begin to happen to Claire, we are so attached to her at this point that we don't just care about her, we're appalled when what happens … happens! Recommended for fans of slow-burners.

For a movie that is an hour and thirty five minutes not much is going on, there is way to little in the story to grab on, you have to wait for the last thirty minutes to get the horror part of the movie going...I'm not kidding I wish I was but I'm not. The other part of the movie introduces our main characters Sara Paxton is probably the only good thing in this movie, she is so underrated as an actress she has so much potential that I know she will have her shot soon, besides her there's not much to say about the other characters anything interesting anyway. The ghost in the movie is not really there we see so few of it and with good reason...it's not scary at all, like I said it takes the last 30 minutes to kick that part going in the meantime your left with two staff members bored as hell trying to kill time looking for said ghost. Ti West made the house of the devil a movie that had the same effect on me that I did this one, wastes to much on characters( that are barley interesting...most of the time) an so little in the horror aspect so the mood gets lost and one feels cheated, I like a slow burn horror movie the anticipation of what is coming drives you and when it's done well you know the climax was worth it, but this movie makes it such a waist and the payoff is not scary. What I can say good about it was Sara Paxton, the hotel and the camera work were phenomenal and that's about it If you watch the trailer it will misguide you into thinking of a way better movie than what you will get.