The real-life haunting of Ti West and ‘The Innkeepers’
While Ti West might be best known for his X movies, comprised of X, Pearl and MaXXXine, his reputation as one of modern horror’s most significant names goes back to the mid-2000s and early-2010s, and earlier works like The Roost, Trigger Man and The Innkeepers helped to establish himself on the horror scene.’
The latter film saw West dive into the supernatural elements of horror for which he would become so well known. Starring Sara Paxton, Pat Healy and Kelly McGillis, The Innkeepers tells of two employees of a once-grand hotel who, on the last weekend of its being open, try to document the strange supernatural activity that takes place in its rooms and hallways.
Like many of the best horror movies, The Innkeepers was actually inspired by real-life events, and best of all, West himself experienced them. The strange occurrences took place when West had been filming The House of the Devil in a cheap hotel called the Yankee Pedlar Inn.
“It just started off kind of goofy, but it became this thing where most of the cast and crew started to think there was something up with the hotel,” West once told IndieWire. “The staff at the hotel believe it’s haunted. The whole town believes it’s haunted. So it has this kind of mystique to it.”
With hopes of making another budget horror movie, West thought it best to make another feature that he, his cast and crew had actually lived. The proprietors of the hotel let the team back in, and West set about incorporating the employees into his film, as well as the sheer mystery of the setting.
Of the happenings, the director noted, “Well I’m a skeptic so I don’t really buy it. But I’ve definitely seen doors close by themselves; I’ve seen a TV turn off and on by itself; lights would always burn out in my room. Everyone on crew has very vivid dreams every night, which is really strange.”
“So when we’re finishing the movie, I find out that the most haunted room in real life, is the room I picked to be the haunted room in the movie. It could be a coincidence. It’s weird that it happened that way,” West added, “The dreams came back the first day I walked in. The vibe was there. Sara Paxton would wake up in the middle of the night thinking someone was in the room with her.”
The result was that some of the crew members and cast became scared of actually staying in the hotel, including Paxon, but after staying for one night, the atmosphere of the place became of interest to her and helped to add to the spooky feel of the film itself. A horror from the depths of the imagination is one thing, but a sense of genuine dread is even more terrifying, which is certainly captured in The Innkeepers.
Check out the trailer for The Innkeepers below to see the authenticity that lies in the heart of West’s horror film.
