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DVD review: 'The Inkeepers'

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The graphics in the opening credits for Ti West's “The Innkeepers” say it all: This is old-school horror, a throwback to the pre-“Halloween” era when the absence of action could be just as creepy as the shocking payoff.

Director Ti West proved with 2009's “The House of the Devil” that there is power in simplicity, and while “The Innkeepers” could use some judicious final cuts, this nostalgic chiller earns its scares.

Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy) are the working stiffs running the Yankee Pedlar on its last weekend, and the shabby, 19th century New England inn has only a few paying customers.

Luke, a slacker who operates a rudimentary, Geocities-style website about the supposedly haunted inn, spends the quiet hours at the Yankee Pedlar trying to record Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) in the halls and basement.

He is attempting to zero in on the ghost of Madeline O'Malley, a woman who killed herself at the inn 120 years before.

Claire is less convinced but bored enough to join in, and with the arrival of Leanne Rease-Jones (Kelly McGillis), a former actress turned psychic medium, the Yankee Pedlar becomes creakier and creepier.

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