Halloween 2019: October 12th

The Innkeepers (2011)

What’s Ti West up to these days? Earlier this decade, Mr. West was the belle of the indie horror ball. 2009’s “House of the Devil” would receive a surprising amount of critical praise, drawing a lot of attention and eyeballs the director’s way. West would collaborate on multiple occasions with fellow “mumblegore” luminaries, Adam Wingard and Joe Swanberg. While Wingard is now doing big budget blockbusters and Swanberg continues to crank out flicks on a near yearly basis, West hasn’t directed a feature since 2016’s western “In a Valley of Violence” and doesn’t seem to have anything forthcoming. Maybe he’s just taking a break, which would be understandable considering he was working steadily for several years. His follow-up to his critical breakthrough, 2011’s “The Innkeepers,” also received it’s fair share of positive notices.

The historic Yankee Pedlar Inn in Connecticut is about to close down for the last time. The hotel, on its penultimate night, is manned by a skeleton crew of just two people: Grouchy and cynical Luke and the much younger, asthmatic Claire. There are only a few guests in the hotel — a mother and her kid, a former actress turned medium, a mysterious old man returning to his honeymoon suite — but the two have a lot of down time. So they have taken up the hobby of ghost-hunting. The Yankee Pedlar is said to be haunted by the ghost of Madeline O’Malley, a jilted bride who hanged herself in one of the rooms back in the 1800s. Claire and Luke are determined to uncover proof of O’Malley’s ghostly existence before the hotel closes for good.

Like “House of the Devil,” “The Innkeepers” is the very definition of a slow-burn. As some folks complained during its initial release, not a lot happens for the first hour or so of this 100 minute long film. Unlike “House of the Devil,” which was largely a solo show devoted to building atmosphere, “The Innkeepers” is as much about hanging out with its leads as generating tension. Sara Paxton is perfectly adorable as Claire, all nervous jitters and girl-next-door charm with fantastic comedic timing. The few moments where she gets so startled she shrieks actually come off as endearing comedy. She has fine chemistry with Pat Healy as Luke, a somewhat prickly hipster who is obviously smitten with the girl. The scenes of them goofing off together, getting drunk and playing-pretend ghosts or screwing around with the desk bell, is honestly one of the high-lights of the movie.

While “The Innkeepers” is as much hang-out movie as it is spook show, Ti West doesn't overlook creating an uneasy atmosphere either. Old hotels are inherently spooky places, with so many faces having passed through their rooms over the years. Moreover, our cast is isolated, frequently exploring the long and echoing halls of the Yankee Pedlar by themselves. The film largely functions on the suggestion of the supernatural. It lets this sense that something may go wrong hang in the air so long that something as simple as a piano key going off or a man disappearing from a hall can produce a shock. When the ghost antics really break loose in the last act, “The Innkeepers” nicely utilizes the scares present in our innocent heroine being trapped behind a closed door with a malevolent spectre. While not quite as bone-chilling terrifying as the film obviously wants to be, it is a decently tense climax and a nice pay-off to what has come before.

“The Innkeepers” would advertise itself as “A ghost story for the minimum wage.” Indeed, I don't think it's any mistake that a failing hotel is our setting and its underpaid sole employees are its stars. A throwaway line at the end reveals, while Luke and Claire are toiling away at their job, the hotel's owner is away in the Bahamas. The ghosts of the Yankee Pedlar include two rejected individuals who killed themselves in heartbreak. It's almost as if the ghost haunting this place is the ghost of failure. Similarly, the film nails the minutia of such a shit job, in delightful moments like Claire attempting to dispose of an overstuffed bag of trash or guests complaining constantly about the lack of towels. I've never worked in a hotel but I bet Ti West has.

By the way, the Yankee Pedlar Inn is a real place. It closed for renovations in 2015 but, despite an attempt to start up again in 2017, has yet to reopened. You'll notice that was several years after “The Innkeepers” was completed, so either the writing was on the wall for a while or Ti West is a prophet. And, like any old hotel, the Yankee Pedlar was said to be haunted in real life. Perhaps the ghosts are stalling renovation attempts? Sounds like a good idea for a sequel to me, Ti! Anyway, “The Innkeepers” has a likable cast and a fitting spooky atmosphere. It's not the chill-fest “House of the Devil” was but is totally likable in its own way. [7/10]

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

The “Elm Street” movies have never been unprofitable. However, “A Nightmare on Elm Street 5” made considerably less than its predecessors. With the eighties ending and Freddy-Mania having obviously crested, a decision was made to end the “Nightmare” series. Freddy Krueger was going to die and it would be right there in the title. “Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare” – because what did teenagers in the early nineties love more than Curtis Mayfield references? – would be unleashed in 1991. Despite the marketing proclaiming that New Line had saved the best for last, reaction to “Freddy's Dead” was highly negative. Fans quickly started to proclaim it the worst in the series and the franchise seemed truly dead for a while.

So why was “Freddy's Dead” so hated? Longtime fans were pissed that the Alice plotline from parts four and five was dropped without explanation. But mostly, people were pissed that the grand finale didn't return to the series' scary roots and, instead, went even further into the wacky comedy the later sequels devolved towards. Rachel Taladay's film establishes an utterly cartoonish tone right from the beginning. Within its opening minutes, Freddy is dressing up like the Wicked Witch of the West, driving a bus, cackling like a loon, and cracking cheesy one-liners. Lots of stupid shit happens in this movie. Like a teenager bouncing around the house like a cartoon character, Freddy doing kung-fu, and Roseanne and Tom Arnold having cameos at the peak of their pop culture overexposure.

I have expressed a noted ambivalence, if not outright disdain, towards goofy Freddy up to this point. Yet, and this is a controversial opinion, I actually like “Freddy's Dead.”  So what's different this time? Mostly, the other sequels were still trying to be scary. Taladay's film is utterly devoted to silliness. (Taladay's only other credit of note is “Tank Girl,” suggesting this type of kinetic buffoonery is her specialty.) The film makes its “Loony Tunes” influence obviously, when Freddy pushes a giant bed of goofy cartoon nails into frame. As previously noted, Robert Englund being a ham is always entertaining to watch. And Freddy, his sweater colors brighter than ever and skin looking less burned, is pure ham here. When scratching up a chalkboard, Englund practically humps it in enthusiasm. The infamous Power Glove sequence is pure dumb-ass junkfood pop culture poetry to me. Look at how much fun Bob is having in these scenes. How can you not share in that pure glee?

Beyond its delightfully cheesy tone, there's something else I enjoy about “Freddy's Dead.” Unlike the generic set of bland teenage victims from the last two films, I actually care about the kids here. Each is given an actual background, a real personality. Lezlie Deane's Tracy is determined in her toughness, defending a wounded soul after suffering from sexual abuse at her father's hand. Ricky Bean Logan's Carlos is more guarded about his own abusive past, protecting himself with a sarcastic sense of humor. Breckin Meyer's Spencer, meanwhile, dulls the shame he feels over his disapproving dad with drugs and acts of petty crime. Each of the actors are well cast and their quirks and interests don't exist solely to set up a death scene later on. Instead, their fears reflect on their past and that's what Freddy utilizes to taunt and kill them.

Obviously, “The Final Nightmare” returns in a big way to the theme of parental abuse from the original. Abusive parents is what connects each of the teenage victims. That includes Maggie, our protagonist who we quickly learn is Fred Krueger's long-lost daughter. That makes Freddy's metaphorical status as the ultimate abusive father figure literal. Even more interesting than that is the looks we get into Freddy's own past. We see him torturing animals in school and dulling his own mental pain with masochistic self-cutting. Most pressingly, we see that Freddy was an abused kid himself. (Though casting Alice Cooper in that part, in a flashy cameo, is a bit distracting.) It turns out, Freddy was once not so different from the children he preys on now. Which is a sort of profound idea, pulling back the curtain to reveal this grand victimizer was once a victim too.

“Freddy's Dead” doesn't just explore Krueger's past as a human. It finally reveals the origins of his supernatural powers, which have never even been hinted at up to this point. We are introduced to the Dream Demons, ancient entities dating back to at least Greek mythology that imbued Freddy with their powers. That's a reveal I like too, as it links Freddy back to a grander, older mythology. The entire 3-D sequence is ridiculous, sure, but it is colorfully directed and full of fun images. Moreover, “Freddy's Dead” is the first sequel in the series to remember that you can actually bring Freddy out of the dream world simply by touching him and waking yourself up. You think that would've come up again before now.

The gimmickry of promoting this as the final “Elm Street” entry pulled in audiences, leading to a bountiful box office debut. Yet the reaction was negative enough that New Line was not eager to go back on their promise. Freddy Krueger would actually stay dead, at least for a while. The fandom has been largely against this movie in the years since, because it's so fucking goofy. I hated it once too, before age made me find its hammy silliness fun, instead of insulting. So I pleasantly surprised to see, if the largely positive reviews on its Letterboxd page are any indication, other fans have come around to this one too. Maybe it's nobody's idea of the ultimate “Nightmare” but it's certainly fun. So, in conclusion: “Freddy's Dead” is actually good – or at least “good” – and y'all have been wrong all these years. [7/10]

Tales from the Cryptkeeper: Drawn and Quartered

Despite the title, nobody is cut into little pieces in this episode. Instead, “Drawn and Quartered” focuses on a budding artist who is being torment by a pair of bullies. When the mean kids tear up his notebook, he's especially despondent. That's when the Cryptkeeper appears and gives him a special pen. A pen that can bring anything he draws to life. The kid immediately goes about drawing his favorite creation – a wacky cartoon character named Wa-Hoo – and other scenes of revenge against the bullies, that spring to life and come to past. This backfires quickly however, as Wa-Hoo proves difficult to control.

Here's how bad things have gotten for “Tales from the Cryptkeeper” in season three. This is one of the better episodes! The chaotic, cartoony energy of Wa-Hoo adds a little life blood to the proceedings. There's one moment here that could've been an effective bit of kid-friendly horror, with better animation and set-up. The bullies reveal that Wa-Hoo literally rearranged their faces. However, as is typical of season three, the overbearing moral message overwhelms any other positive attribute here. See, “Drawn and Quatered” is only anti-bullying in the sense that the bad kids stop harassing the protagonist in the end. The episode is actually attempting to convey to young kids the fruitlessness of revenge. First off, I'm of the opinion that most bullies deserve to be humiliated. Secondly, hearing the Cryptkeeper preach against the evils of revenge – when half of all the “Tales from the Crypt” episodes were about just that! – really creates a disconnect. And yet this still sucks marginally less than most of the rest of the season. [5/10]

Forever Knight: Close Call

Ah, the clip show. It's a television tradition with a long history. Usually, a sort-of new episode largely composed of reused footage is done to save money after a series has overrun its budget, to give its lead actors some time off, or because an extra episode needs to be tacked on to fulfill a season order. It's pretty easy to figure out which one of these “Close Call” is. During a shoot-out with an armed criminal, Nick uses his vampire super-speed to save Schanke's life. The criminal is killed in the fire fight. While Nick hypnotizes Schanke to forget, some questions still linger in his mind. He follows a trail of clues, recalling previous times he's seen his partner act strangely.

For a clip show, “Close Call” at least has a decent premise. I've commented before that Schanke probably should have figured out by now that Nick is a vampire. That's a good basis for an episode, even if we know the truth has to remain hidden for the show's premise to continue. Schanke uncovering a number of weird coincidences – an old driver's license for one of Nick's previous identity, a picture of Nick and Janette disguised as their “grandparents – is mildly compelling. There's also some humor in watching the cop get repeatedly mesmerized by vampires, as he comes closer to uncovering the truth. The episode justifies its existence with the climax, where Schanke confronts LaCroix – who he only knows as Nick's favorite DJ – and the vampire delivers a surprisingly passionate defense of his offspring. Aw, he really does love his vampire son! But this is still a clip show, so there's only so much to recommend. Geraint Wyn-Davis is in less than half the episode so I'm guessing he had some vacation time coming up or something. [6/10]