Following his masterfully atmospheric '80s peekaboo throwback "The House of the Devil," indie horror guy Ti West plays creep show docent again with "The Innkeepers," about a slacker hotel employee named Claire (Sara Paxton) who misguidedly provokes engagement with her soon-to-be-shuttered workplace's haunted reputation.
It's as much an homage to the creaky old-world charms of the place where West and his crew stayed during the Connecticut shoot of "House" — a regally faded 19th century edifice called the Yankee Pedlar — than it is another agreeably fun flexing of the writer-director's considerable shivers-not-shocks technique. An empty hallway at a low angle, a faintly hollow noise and a shot held two beats longer than usual are West's tools of the trade — plus a cheeky sense of humor in the glib conversations between Claire and fellow worker Luke (Pat Healy).
