The Innkeepers

Ti West's newest film the InnKeepers, had high expectations after i loved the creepy factor of his previous effort " house of the devil" . I was not prepared for the stylistic shift , but can appreciate a film maker who wants to have a boarder range and not just be a one trick pony. At times i think The Innkeepers , is no more horror than say Shaun of the dead, but it's not a comedy either , falling into more of a Napoleon Dynamite slacker ethos , sure there is a haunted hotel , there is a serial Killer in last year's day dream nation but that didn't make that film horror either , not that it tried to be.
The characters are real , fleshed out and well acted , so that keeps the movie moving a few scenes tease you as you can see something happening from a mile away . I liked this movie in the same way i liked Ghost World or high fidelity, so despite the spooky poster art i wouldn't classify this as a horror movie per se , dark comedic drama ? Sure he pulls out a scare of sorts i suppose at the end but where house of the devil worked is that the tension was kept taunt through out the whole movie, here it feels more like yeah , here's this boo.
Here the haunted house didn't really carry the sense of menace, it needs to loom as the monster or be convincing , 1408 in it's first hour before it turned into a scary Jumanji didn't give you the imposing structure like Amityville, or the isolation factor like the shining , even movies like paranormal activity and poltergeist which occur in the burbs created enough myth to keep you on edge , after all isn't that the purpose of a ghost story. Normally i am the most scared by a good haunting , even a haunting in Connecticut, here the atmosphere of menace , just wasn't there perhaps purposefully so to add to the slacker realism.
Hope Ti goes back to horror on his next , films , if you want to watch something with a slight spook to it perhaps with a friend who isn't into horror , this would work, it's well acted and made , and not a bad movie , perhaps mis marketed