My notes on Night at the Eagle Inn
Twins Sarah (Amelia Dudley) and Spencer (Taylor Turner) seek out and check into the Eagle Inn, an obscure, out-of-the-way hostelry that happens to be the place where they were born – during a snowstorm, after which their mother died and father disappeared. Having been raised in foster care, the siblings are full of questions about this incident – which the night manager (Greg Schweers) isn’t particularly keen to address, and all sorts of other strange circumstances make this visit seem ill-advised. The Inn doesn’t take bookings, online or over the phone, but only walk-in guests … and only one double room is available for Sarah and Spencer despite the fact that no other guests are in evidence, unless you count odd, ranting apparitions who pop up on televisions or in corners. Handyman Dean (Beau Minnear) is more forthcoming, but also seems more like a pin-up than a working stiff – appealing to the gay guy and the straight sister, with just a hint of menace.
Director Erik Bloomquist (Three Minutes to Midnight), who co-wrote with Carson Bloomquist and plays the missing father in flashbacks, keeps this story tight and down to seventy minutes (brevity is an admirable auteur trait). A backstory emerges about an unconventional deal with a devil, though the trick here is that we come in at the end of that particular story as a loophole is being exploited to cheat the Faust character of his get-out clause and the cycle lurches into motion again. It’s self-aware (with throwaway references to The Shining and The Twilight Zone), witty (the twins’ bicker/banter vibe is well-written and acted) and more quirky than terrifying – with Schweers in particular contributing a study in strained, off-the-beam eccentricity and suppressed fury.
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