Outside the Yankee Pedlar Inn in northern Connecticut, the sun is setting, but inside the century-old hotel a grandfather clock ticks away the graveyard shift. Above a dormant fireplace, the eyes of a mounted deer look out on the spacious lobby, almost comically resigned to its surroundings. A grand piano sits in the corner. Framed black-and-white portraits of deceased tenants and old newspaper articles (“Kennedy Murdered!”) hang on the walls. There’s a cozy forebodingness in the lobby’s silence and layout, as if the surrounding objects might simultaneously levitate and partake in a tenebrous dance. And moreover, in the center of the room, next to a sidetable crowded in Schlitz empties, there lies a body under a white sheet.
Down a nearby hallway, the approaching voice of a young man booms “Show yourself, spirit!” The covered body remains still under the light of a chandelier. Again, louder. “I said, show yourself spirit!” And this time, the body rises, lurching its arms forward and emitting a feminine “Woooo! Grooohhooo!” Except, rather than succumbing to terror, the man begins to laugh at his assailant, who has tripped and fallen over a pillow. As it turns out, we are observing two innkeepers in a drunken bout of freak-each-other-out. Of the nine or so crew members standing nearby, one yells “Cut,” as actress Sara Paxton proceeds to remove the bed sheet and rub her backside.
Read more…
The Innkeepers (2011)
Enter Nowhere (2011)
