Anybody who knows me, knows that I'm not a big fan of Ti West. I've seen most of his films and I can honestly say that I have yet to watch one that has pulled me in and held my attention all the way through. I'm always willing to go in open minded and I'd probably be the same way with West's films had I not been berated by one his friends for not liking The House of the Devil. I'm all for people expressing their feelings and shit but when it borders on a personal attack, that kinda ruins it for me.
The Yankee Pedlar Inn is a hotel in Torrington, CT, that's been welcoming guests for over a hundred years. However, not many have been stopping by lately, and the owners have chosen to shut it down. In the Yankee Pedlar's last weeks of operation, the staff have been reduced to just two people, Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy). Neither one is especially interested in hotel management, but they're both students of the supernatural. They've come to the Yankee Pedlar because it has a reputation for being haunted and they want to see for themselves if ghosts walk the halls before it's too late. The two spend their time searching the empty rooms for evidence of paranormal activity, which Luke will post on his website (if he ever finishes it), but they don't find much until an eccentric woman (Kelly McGillis) who shares their fascination with ghosts checks in. Together, they begin to discover the truth about the Yankee Pedlar's strange legacy.
I didn't much care for Paxton's character in this one. It's nothing against her personally, I think she did an okay job, but there was just something about it that irked me the entire time. Maybe it was that she didn't come off as your typical "ghost hunter" or maybe it was the immaturity of the character, I dunno. I can't quite put my finger on it but I found her (Claire) quite annoying. Healy I could relate to a little more... an eternal pessimist or realist with a fascination of the paranormal. His character was just as immature as Paxton's but he didn't whine as much. As far as the acting abilities of these two people, nothing jumped out at me as overly good or bad.
West is notorious for the slow burn horror, if you can even call it horror. To me, it's not because it isn't scary and before anyone starts yelling that "you just don't get it", I do get it. I can enjoy an intense, wait for it, film just as much as an in your face, scary as hell kind of film but for me West's creations never have the kind of pay off that make me respect the film as a whole. It's like having ho-hum sex for an hour and a half and never climaxing. You wanna stick around for the ultimate ending because you know once you get it, it'll be explosive but it never happens. There are those that like this kind of film but I just can't get into a film that is so painfully slow and delivers nothing at the end. I'll most likely watch more of his stuff, I want to like his work, I want to say I finally watched something from Ti West that I enjoyed but so far it's just been like "ho-hum sex" for me.
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