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The Innkeepers (film)

2011 film by Ti West

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ4450019 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Innkeepers is a 2011 American supernatural horror film written, directed, and edited by Ti West. It stars Sara Paxton, Pat Healy, and Kelly McGillis. Its plot follows two employees at the Yankee Pedlar Inn who, during its last weekend of operations, attempt to document the alleged supernatural activity in the building.

Plot

In the final operating week of the Yankee Pedlar Inn, a once-grand hotel, Claire and Luke are the only employees working. Claire, an asthmatic college dropout, and Luke, owner of a website chronicling the hotel's supposed hauntings, are both ghost hunting enthusiasts fascinated by the hotel's "haunted" history. They were especially interested in Madeline O'Malley, a bride who hanged herself when abandoned at the altar, and whose body was hidden in the basement by the hotel owners.

Luke checks in an older woman, whom Claire recognizes as Leanne Rease-Jones, a former actress. While delivering towels to her room, Claire is starstruck and has an awkward encounter with Leanne, who is initially cold toward her. The following night, while taking out the garbage, Claire notices Leanne watching from her room window and waves, but Leanne moves away from the window without acknowledging her. Claire hears noises coming from the hotel's garage, where there is a door leading to the basement.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Innkeepers (film)” is 2011 film by Ti West. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Innkeepers, film and West, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2011—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2011-01-01. For this dossier, Innkeepers, film and West is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “2011 film by Ti West” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4450019. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2011.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Innkeepers (film)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Innkeepers (film) primary sources, The Innkeepers (film) archive and Innkeepers research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Innkeepers (film)”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Innkeepers (film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.