The relentless slow-build in the music replicates the experience of watching the movie: we're constantly on tenterhooks wondering when the axe will fall and the terror will really begin.
"The Pendulum" and "What Does She Want" continue with the same restrained air, subtly gauged electronic effects and choir adding an appropriately spiritual feel to the orchestra.
"The Story of Madeline" re-introduces the main theme, extending it through dark-hued strings that really make the hairs on the back of the neck stand up. "The Garage" introduces the first action music with thunderous, slicing strings and glissandi, again underpinned by the ominous notes from the piano. "Right Behind You!" introduces a brilliantly effective piano trill, adapting the flute motif and reflecting the film's idea that the ghost is often heard at the piano in the hotel's lobby.Īnother thing Grace does brilliantly is misdirection: towards the end of "Right Behind You!" the solemn wall of strings suddenly gives way to darker, discordant material, indicating a change in atmosphere. The restrained "Claire's Room" inverts the main theme by making it sound calm and collected, indicating the latent supernatural activity that the characters are not yet aware of. It owes a clear debt to James Newton Howard's theme from The Happening but it's wonderful anyway, a horror score with a proper theme to give a sense of structure.įor the most part, the score bubbles away in the background, establishing a dark sense of unease through Grace's well-bolstered orchestrations. The piece is split into two parts: the central ghost theme, essentially a moody string section (lurking alongside which is a motif from the flutes signifying possible supernatural activity), and a pounding secondary piece featuring celli, double bass and timpani, which indicate the encroaching supernatural horror. The soundtrack album opens with a real barnstormer simply named "The Innkeepers", one which immediately grabs the attention and informs the listener that this score will be a classically old-fashioned delight. The Innkeepers is one of Grace's most accessible scores to date, but although it's relatively conventional, the composer demonstrates real skill by peppering the music with clever ideas to further build a sense of unease. However, Grace also has a noteworthy voice of his own: his score for the 2010 vampire movie Stake Land featured a surprising amount of emotional material in amongst the intriguing orchestral textures, and his work on House of the Devil also displayed an intelligent restraint, building agonisingly just like the film before exploding in terror at the end. Grace worked as an assistant to Howard Shore on both Lord of the Rings, Spider and Gangs of New York, and Shore's sorcerous, portentous approach is very much evident in Grace's horror work. The film also continues West's relationship with composer Jeff Grace, who has composed all but one of West's feature films thus far (The Roost, Trigger Man and House of the Devil). It's a commendably old-fashioned experience and continues the great run of ghostly chillers we've had recently. For the most part, West keeps the jump scares and in-your-face effects to a minimum, building the characters throughout the first half before cranking up the ominous tension in the second. The Innkeepers is a much more restrained film than the Hammer remake of The Woman in Black from earlier in 2012 – and it's all the better for it.
In the manner of these stories, both Sara and Luke uncover more than a few unpleasant surprises, which seem to coincide with the arrival of a medium, played by Kelly McGillis. Determined to delve into the hotel's grisly past, they decide to seek out the spirit of Madeline O'Malley, a bride who was supposedly jilted on her honeymoon, and who hung herself in one of the upstairs rooms. With the building on the verge of closure, and few guests in attendance, both Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy) are caught in a funk. A terrific horror movie from director Ti West, The Innkeepers is the story of two employees at Connecticut's Yankee Pedlar Inn who decide to indulge in a spot of ghost-hunting.
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