A Keeper

As I have mentioned, Ms. Spenser wants to watch more scary movies. I'm letting her have her way, cautiously (and I expect her to let me watch some manly musicals in exchange). So Curt from Mountain View (as he is known by the B-Movie Cast) suggested The Innkeepers (2011) and I queued it up. He did not steer us wrong.

It is the last long weekend for the Yankee Pedlar hotel. After a century of doing business in some corner of New England, it is closing up. There are almost no guests and only two people staffing, a pair of young slackers played by Sara Paxton and Pat Healy. He is a nerdy college dropout with a terrible website about the ghosts haunting the Pedlar. She is a perky-punky type who really wants to see a ghost, and preferably capture it on film (or tape, because their camera is busted).

I'm going to try to avoid spoilers, but I can tell you that most of the movie is just the two leads goofing off, playing pranks and talking trash. Also, it's really more of a horror-comedy, with a lot of the comedy based on these characters. Interestingly, when Kelly McGillis shows up as an ex-TV star now psychic (and secret drinker), she is not played as part of the comedy. She looks age-appropriate, a bit stocky, with sensible-cut grey hair, and comes across as really human and honest.

So, this is not the slasher-rama I was afraid of. It gets tense at times and is legit scary (sometimes), but nothing to give you (me) nightmares. I liked it a lot.