Two young clerks sit the front desk of a old Connecticutinn on its last weekend of operation in Ti West’s latest spook-fare, The Innkeepers. Luke is a sputter-lipped, Dwight Schrute-come-Elvis Costello whose curiosity about the inn’s supposed haunting by a newlywed who was killed there decades ago has turned the pair into amateur ghost-hounds. Claire (Sara Paxton) is a jittery asthmatic: pretty, young, blond, and innocent. When one of the hotel’s only guests turns out to be one of her favorite actresses, Leanne Rease-Jones (Kelly McGillis), she’s forced to admit she’s a small town girl who lacks a firm grasp on her future. In other words, perfect horror-flick fodder.

There’s more than just a setting borrowed from The Shining. Ti West’s film is filled with slow dolly-ing, waste high point-of-view shots, which slowly creep up hallways and peer around corners. And despite the presence of some ghoul-catching gadgetry (namely a microphone and recorder), when Luke tells Claire early on that he forgot the video camera, you can’t not take it as a jab at the shaky cam scares (from Blair Witch to Paranormal Activity to this month’s The Devil Inside) that have infected the genre. West’s cues are part Kubric and part Craven, with a film whose own comfy teenage jocularity leaves something of a John Hughes aftertaste.

This throw-back sensibility will satisfy fans of the genre, who will not be disappointed by West’s half dozen or so real attempts at getting under our skin. It is the director’s wit that helps keep us guessing, despite the rather routine scenario, as West sets up a few false scares while continually building the underlying tension to fuel the final, expected haunting. The Innkeepers’ use of ghouls, makeup, and blood is likewise temperate, which lends them more impact. And even the off-point scenes between Clair and Leanne, which dabble in some distilled Buddhist, new age-y philosophy to help heighten the movie’s sense of possibility, don’t play as hokey as they should. To West’s credit, he’s got his whole world marching in line, as efficient, predictable, and satisfying as a fun night at a good dinner theater.