On the evening of its final hours before being closed and demolished, two hotel workers find themselves determined to uncover the haunted past of their place of employment.
I'm almost certain that Ti West is destined to appear on this list every year from now on, solely due to timing. Last year, I reviewed his acclaimed House of the Devil, which I damn near loved to death. Since then, he's gone on to write and direct this followup, and like that film, it shares a lot of things to like, but some that I think prevent it from being a truly GREAT movie.
Judging by his casting choices for the aforementioned Devil, West has a good eye for female leads. For me, Sara Paxton's Claire was very easy to identify with. Awkward, a bit nerdy, and pretty much dissatisfied with her position in life. Hell, that's me in a nutshell! But anyway, she's very mousey here too, and Pat Healy's Luke has some similarities personality-wise, but just enough of a difference that he doesn't feel like Claire with different genitalia. West loves to make this feel like an old time ghost story, with a heavy emphasis on slow build ups and even "chapter stops" riddled throughout its running time. This might make or break the film for a lot of people, since slowness with payoff in the final act was also prevalent throughout House of the Devil.
The film also contains a good sense of humor, which I was completely unaware of, but it helps keep it grounded and prevents the audience from drifting off. I wasn't aware that there would be such a heavy focus on jump scares though, and while I don't mind those in certain scenarios or pictures, I was hoping we'd see less of them from a ghost story of this nature. Without giving too much away, there is also a revelation of one of the guests being a medium, which seemed a little too coincidental and a tad bit silly, but I suppose there are only so many ways with which to deal with subject matter like this.
Was I blown away by this film as I was with West's previous work? Well, no. But it is worth a watch, so long as you don't set your expectations too high. I'd still say House of the Devil is the superior product, but then again, Ti West's career in horror is still relatively young, so we've only seen just the beginning of this potential future master of the craft.
Tomorrow, we stick around in modern times with DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK.
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