Spooky doings, doublethink, and an alternative history are just some of what has been setting the tone of my February and March 2021...
Click "READ MORE" below to see this month's looks, sounds, vibes & flavours...
Showing posts with label hotel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hotel. Show all posts
Wednesday, 31 March 2021
Flavours of the Month: February/March 2021...
Friday, 5 October 2012
Double Bill Mini Musings: Haunted Hotels & Spoofing Spies...
The Innkeepers:
What's it about?
Ti West's follow-up to the chilling, yet restrained, 1980s-set horror The House of the Devil, about a couple of Generation Y slacker-cum-ghost-hunters (Claire and Luke) who are working during the closing weekend of The Yankee Pedlar Inn, a New England hotel with a dark history.
Who would I recognise in it?
Sara Paxton, Kelly McGillis
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Up front, if you didn't dig the gradual pace and slow-build tension of The House of the Devil, then you'll no doubt find no entertainment here. However, if - like me - you lapped up that flick, then you'll be in familiar and unsettling territory here. West has a real talent for subtle pacing and characterisation - you genuinely like Claire and Luke, who exist in a lazier hotelier's version of Clerks when they're not busy trying to find evidence of supernatural goings on. However, with the arrival of McGillis' actress-turned-healer, and a distanced widower, things begin to take a chilling turn. Each corridor, each picture frame reflection, each silent pause, holds an increasing sense of menace - you don't know whether to trust West or not after a knowing scare at the top of the flick - and this is the charm of the film. It's a classic ghost story that trades on familiar elements to inspire a sense of deja vu in the viewer. Sly hints crop up to continue the subtle guess-work - musical allusions to Ghostbusters, visual winks to The Shining - precisely where we'll end up is deftly hidden, and being that West has a fondness for horror from the genre's heyday, counting on a cosy wrap-up is sorely misguided. Cast with subtle shades and a glacial sense of propulsion, Saw franchise fanboys need not apply, but those keen on tense chills will be well served. Great.
Click "READ MORE" below for the belated return of Johnny English...
What's it about?
Ti West's follow-up to the chilling, yet restrained, 1980s-set horror The House of the Devil, about a couple of Generation Y slacker-cum-ghost-hunters (Claire and Luke) who are working during the closing weekend of The Yankee Pedlar Inn, a New England hotel with a dark history.
Who would I recognise in it?
Sara Paxton, Kelly McGillis
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Up front, if you didn't dig the gradual pace and slow-build tension of The House of the Devil, then you'll no doubt find no entertainment here. However, if - like me - you lapped up that flick, then you'll be in familiar and unsettling territory here. West has a real talent for subtle pacing and characterisation - you genuinely like Claire and Luke, who exist in a lazier hotelier's version of Clerks when they're not busy trying to find evidence of supernatural goings on. However, with the arrival of McGillis' actress-turned-healer, and a distanced widower, things begin to take a chilling turn. Each corridor, each picture frame reflection, each silent pause, holds an increasing sense of menace - you don't know whether to trust West or not after a knowing scare at the top of the flick - and this is the charm of the film. It's a classic ghost story that trades on familiar elements to inspire a sense of deja vu in the viewer. Sly hints crop up to continue the subtle guess-work - musical allusions to Ghostbusters, visual winks to The Shining - precisely where we'll end up is deftly hidden, and being that West has a fondness for horror from the genre's heyday, counting on a cosy wrap-up is sorely misguided. Cast with subtle shades and a glacial sense of propulsion, Saw franchise fanboys need not apply, but those keen on tense chills will be well served. Great.
Click "READ MORE" below for the belated return of Johnny English...
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