He pricks our nerves then settles them with a good, natural laugh. He used camera angles to build an agonizing level of suspense in the first 45 minutes of Devil, but in The Innkeepers he has the characters make each other go boo several times before that. West’s pacing is still slow, but less so. The mundane setting lulls you surely nothing really spooky can happen when a latte with caramel topping is so readily accessible. But Claire can pop next door for a coffee poured by a barrista whining about her boyfriend problems ( Tiny Furniture’s Lena Dunham, who had a voice cameo in Devil). Samantha, the poor babysitter pursued by a satanic cult in Devil, got stuck in a creepy mansion out in the country without a car. It’s right downtown, in a civilized small Northeastern city (the film was shot in Connecticut). He might be mimicking the way Stanley Kubrick shot empty hallways and closed doors in The Shining, but the movie’s Victorian-inspired hotel isn’t off in some remote mountain location. He’s a little more playful with The Innkeepers.

The idea is, by the time bad things happen, it will be a giddy relief, satisfying mayhem. He’s an anticipation junkie, teasingly sending his characters down into cellars and up creaky stairs for two full acts without having them encounter the real danger you absolutely know is lurking. Devil made him a hot director because he took a tired conceit (babysitter in peril) and made it fresh again, but with vintage style, mostly by taking his sweet time to build suspense. He’s a painstaking framer, a lover of symmetry, a firm believer in keeping the door closed until he’s absolutely ready to show his hand. West is more interested in classic elegance than Paranormal director Oren Peli there’s no grainy “found” footage and as he demonstrated with Devil, a modest budget doesn’t mean a movie has to look cheap. A lowly clerk can dream of Paranormal Activity: The Hotel Chapter. The place is haunted, or so Luke hopes proof of the alleged resident ghost Madeline O’Malley would really boost traffic to his haunted-house website. Follow The Innkeepers, writer/director Ti West’s first true project since his acclaimed 80’s retro horror film The House of the Devil, a pair of likeable slacker clerks, Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy), are left in charge of the Yankee Pedlar Inn on its last weekend of business.

The innkeepers 2011 mpaa rating