Letterboxd — Your life in film

Excruciatingly long and overdrawn pseudo-period piece that revels in its own narrative detail than actually delivering a coherent and attractive story.

Ti West's trademark slow-burn aesthetic works wonders here as he combines blunt humor, apt characterization, and brilliant narrative pacing to create a wholly original- and excruciatingly suspenseful- horror film that matter-of-factly sidesteps narrative conventions of a traditional horror film. Those expecting schlocky splatterporn horror be forewarned, The Innkeepers is much smarter than that.

Manages to break free of the overplayed reputation of the found-footage gimmick and aspires to be a dark, grounded, and somewhat exhilarating sci-fi/superhero origin story. Mostly succeeds, but hits its stride best when capturing the angst and the brutal social hierarchy of high school culture.

Apart from the film not being the over-the-top exercise in wolfpunching everyone was hoping for, THE GREY instead tries to be a deeply reflective philosophical character study. Unfortunately, it comes off more like an underdeveloped final project for a Philosophy 101 class than a coherent mediation on the existence of god, man vs. nature, etc.