10 Great Ghost Movies (No One Ever Talks About)
4. The Innkeepers
Released in 2009, House of the Devil was an homage to eighties satanic panic horrors which proved almost too effective in its pitch perfect recreation of the era's aesthetic.
Not unlike the later Terrifier, the film managed to faithfully channel the style of eighties horror, but it unfortunately also held onto the flat characters and padded plotting of the decade's scary cinematic efforts.
Director Ti West’s underrated 2012 follow up The Innkeepers, however...
Learning from and building on his earlier film’s promise, this horror is a slow burn masterpiece of tension and character building which leaves you as invested in its small cast as you are terrified for their fate.
Most of the film's meditatively paced action follows the eponymous B+B operators as they close up shop, banter, and eventually start to investigate the rumours of haunting that plague their workplace.
And that’s when things take a turn for the unforgettably scary, as a sudden spike in the film's tension and action leaves viewers floored after being lulled into a false sense of security by the mumblecore opening act.