'The Innkeepers' is one of the best 'ghost hunter' movies ever

I watched a good horror move the other day, a relatively obscure movie that some of you may not have heard of, but one that you might want to check out if you enjoy horror movies. It’s called “The Innkeepers” and a few of you will remember when it was released in theatres back in February.

“The Innkeepers” was written and directed by Ti West. The cast included Sara Paxton, Pat Healy, Kelly McGillis, George Riddle, Lena Dunham, Brenda Cooney and John Speredakos. The movie is rated R and is an hour and 41 minutes long.

Here’s the plot in a nutshell. “The Innkeepers” is set in an old New England hotel, which is about to close for good. In fact, the movie takes place during the very last weekend that the old hotel, the Yankee Pedlar Inn, will ever accept guests. The owner is out of town on vacation and the hotel is being manned by two young employees, Luke and Claire.

Luke and Claire are amateur paranormal investigators, and Luke maintains a Web site about the hotel’s haunted history. In their spare time, while running the hotel in shifts, they investigate the hotel for evidence of the supernatural. For some time, they’ve unsuccessfully tried to photograph a ghost or capture EVP evidence of ghostly communications.

They’ve especially tried to make contact with the spirit of Madeline O’Malley, a Victorian era bride who hung herself after her husband abandoned her during their honeymoon at the hotel. The story goes that after the hotel owners discovered O’Malley’s body, they buried her in the basement. Ever since, her ghots has supposedly haunted the hotel.

A few days before the closing of the hotel, in comes one of its final guests, Leanne Rease-Jones, a psychic medium, who warns Claire to stay out of the basement. Of course, Luke and Claire do just the opposite, and they learn more than they ever want to know about the hotel’s haunted history. I’ll stop right there to keep from ruining the movie for those of you who haven’t seen it.

I liked this movie for a couple of reasons. First, I love movies that feature paranormal investigators. Some of my all-time favorites are “Poltergeist,” “Ghostbusters,” “The Mothman Prophecies,” “The Haunting,” “White Noise” and “1408.”

I also enjoyed the old hotel vibe of “The Innkeepers.” It was especially well done and had a strong “1408/The Shinning” feel to it. Hotels, especially old hotels, are some of the creepiest places you’ll ever visit. If you take into account all the people who’s stayed there over the years, including those who have used the rooms for morbid purposes like murders and suicides, they’re ripe for the supernatural. I never really appreciated this aspect of hotels though until I read “The Shinning” by Stephen King, which I also highly recommend. You'll never look at hotels and motels the same after reading "The Shinning."

In the end, how many of you have seen “The Innkeepers”? What did you think about it? Did you like it or not? What would you have done had you been in Luke and Claire’s shoes? Let us know in the comments section below.