Check out low-key thriller 'Innkeepers'

<b>Reel Life review: 'The Innkeepers'</b>

The real star of Ti West's tidy little ghost story "The Innkeepers" has to be that dissonant chord of unnerving noise that plays on the soundtrack, constantly keeping us cued-up for something spooky to happen at any minute, but not.

This low-key, nonexploitative horror tale takes place at the Yankee Pedlar Inn, one of New England's most haunted hotels where the last two employees - amateur ghost hunters Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy) - want to document evidence of the supernatural before the grand old building gets turned into a parking lot.

Curious Claire is no girly-girl, and Luke's nerd personality puts comfort before matters of the occult. They make an interesting pair of protagonists given plenty of time to dabble in investigating footsteps and shadows since the hotel's clientele has dwindled to an angry wife (Alison Bartlett) on the lam from her hubby, and Leanne Rease-Jones (Kelly McGillis), a former TV star turned New Age psychic.

Claire and Luke are more interested in the unseen hotel guest, the ghost of a spurned bride who hanged herself in the bridal suite upon receiving news that her betrothed had betrayed her.

West rejects the cheap shock effects of "Woman in Black" by directing "Innkeepers" as an exercise in escalating mystery, abetted nicely by Jeff Grace's restrained creepy music and Eliot Rockett's tight camera work.

Still, the climactic payoff comes off as made-for-cable-TV quality and the ghostly bride's severe makeup looks like a reject from Michael Jackson's "Thriller," leaving the realistically engaging banter between Paxton and Healy to give this movie its high spirits.

"The Innkeepers" opens at the Music Box Theatre, Chicago. Rated R for bloody images and language. 100 minutes ★ ★ ½

<b>Brrrring on the cold!</b>

Daily Herald readers have their own favorites when it comes to the coldest movies ever made. (I listed mine in Time out! on Friday, Jan. 27.) Here they are:

I read your top 10 list of the best "cold" movies and noticed one glaring omission: "Whiteout" from 2009, set in the Antarctic with Kate Beckinsale. She is a U.S. marshal chasing down a killer in the frozen outdoors and ends up losing a couple of fingers to extreme frostbite. I personally believe this should have been at least No. 2 on your list. I also remember "The Thing" from 1982 starring Kurt Russell, also set in the Arctic. - Susan Hobbs, Arlington Heights

Dear Susan: "Whiteout" is an excellent choice, and I intended my mention of the original "The Thing" to cover both its 1982 and 2011 remakes. Russell's thriller was actually set in the Antarctic.

Brrrrr! I still have a chill after reading your article. Here are other movies that popped into my head: "Patton," "Jeremiah Johnson" and "Alive." - Holly S., Hanover Park

I know these are not cinema classics, however "The Edge" was a very entertaining movie. Getting chased by a Kodiak bear in the Alaskan tundra froze my blood. "The Thing" (both versions, but I thought the John Carpenter version "felt" colder). - Mark Batinich, North Aurora

Thank you for the frosty suggestions. I like Werner Herzog's "Encounters at the End Of the World." - Happy Steitz, Glen Ellyn (and Daily Herald subscriber)

Did you actually see "Fargo"? If you had, you'd know only the first few minutes take place in North Dakota. The rest takes place in Minnesota. If you can find it, watch "Frozen Stupid," one of my favorite cold movies. - Greg Rourke, Geneva

How about "Never Cry Wolf" with Charles Martin Smith as the biologist investigating the supposed effects of wolves on caribou in the Canadian wilderness? The scenes I remember most are him being dropped off in the middle of nowhere, falling through the ice on a frozen lake and eating mice to prove that wolves could subsist on mice rather than caribou.

Regarding your comment on "March of the Penguins" being the most heart-wrenching to watch, I agree. My daughter and I find it interesting that we and most people are much more distressed by the plight of animals in movies rather than people. For example, in the movie "I Am Legend" we found ourselves crying over Will Smith's dog dying rather than the hundreds of thousands of people who were turned into mutants! Why do you suppose this is so? - Adrienne Worrell

Dear Adrienne: People love dogs more than mutants. It's a fact.

I think that you forgot "Cold Mountain." I know that Jude Law talked about always being cold and wet, and I remember needing a blanket when we watched the video. - Karen Daniels

Regarding your list of frosty films, how about adding "A Simple Plan"? The scene when the snow and ice-covered airplane is discovered along with Billy Bob Thornton and Bill Paxton leaving their footprints in the deep snow is chilling indeed. A great and badly underrated film. - Sheila Nielsen, Roselle

Dear Sheila: You have excellent taste in cold movies because "A Simple Plan" made my top-10 list for 1998.

"Cliffhanger" starring Sylvester Stallone gave me the shivers when it came out in the summer of 1993. Between the heights and the snow (and John Lithgow, prior to his "3rd Rock" antics), I was uncomfortable through the whole movie in the way an action-adventure-suspense flick ought to be. A Trekker would have you mention the ice-cold prison planet Rura Penthe in "Star Trek VI." Made me wish for such a fashionable fur coat. (I wouldn't mind being a shape-shifter either.) - Monica Lee, Hampshire

<b>Free love on imdb.com</b>

It's become an annual tradition.

Former Arlington Heights resident Collin Souter's 2008 doc "Break-Up Date" will be offered free on the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) during the romantic month of February. One of the interviewees is WGN radio star Nick Digilio, who talks candidly about his own breakup. Go to imdb.to/rI81Vx.

<i>Daily Herald film critic Dann Gire's column runs Fridays in Time out!</i>