They're a likable pair of laidback slackers – the sharp, sceptical desk clerk Luke (Pat Healy) and his footloose assistant Claire (Sara Paxton) – and apart from their ghostbusting they have only three guests to bother about this final week, one of them an elderly widower who'd spent his honeymoon at the hotel, another a TV actress turned professional psychic (Kelly McGillis). The place is about to close (not like The Shining's Overlook hotel just for the winter but for ever) and its two remaining employees decide to have some fun and possibly make a bit of money by a little paranormal investigation. The Innkeepers takes place in Connecticut at a charming, once fashionable hotel, the Yankee Pedlar Inn, said to be haunted by the ghost of Madeline O'Malley, a jilted Irish-American bride who hanged herself there not long after it opened in the late 19th century. The house is evidently possessed, someone appears to be sending ominous messages to Anne, and the film cleverly exploits aspects of everyone's childhood. The Pact takes place in San Pedro, the ugly port south of Los Angeles where Charles Bukowski chose to spend his last days, and centres on Annie, a leather-clad biker who returns to her nondescript family home for her loathsome mother's funeral only to find her sister has disappeared. Kicking off with a knowingly chintzy Internet gag, the story follows a pair of bored clerks (Paxton and Pat Healy) working at a rickety Victorian inn during its last few days of business. Both are modestly enjoyable, and neither (thank God) claims to be inspired by true events. The Innkeepers, West's follow-up, winningly continues the retro streak, doling out the murk and gloom by steadily escalating degrees, anchored by Sara Paxton's wonderfully appealing mope of a lead performance.
Y ou wait for a month for a supernatural horror movie to come along and then two arrive the same day, set in houses on opposite sides of America.