The House of the Devil

In the 1980s, college student Samantha Hughes (Jocelin Donahue) takes a strange babysitting job that coincides with a full lunar eclipse. She slowly realizes her clients harbor a terrifying secret.

I absolutely love that director Ti West did everything he could to make this come off as a 1980s movie -- the style, the 16mm camera, releasing the film in a clam shell box (I am surprised they actually allowed this last one). Opinions vary, but I think it is safe to say the (modern) golden age for horror was the 1980s. And here we are, adding another 80s film to the list (sort of).

West also managed to hire genre actors Tom Noonan, Dee Wallace and Mary Woronov for the picture, which I think fans appreciate. Larry Fessenden served as a producer, and this may be the best project Fessenden was ever attached to.

What I find as strange is how this film is very highly rated by people. Not that it is a bad film. I enjoyed it. But I think it is interesting that the film gets a lot of credit for working in the 1980s style. Had this identical film come out in the 1980s, it may have hardly registered among its peers. This film rides the wave of nostalgia... and it rides it well.

Well then, what do we have here? A modern horror film placed in the 70/80s era. I already like Ti West thinking. With most Horror films today being god damn awful, it refreshing to see one which pays homage to the classics while trying to be unique. From start to finish, the film is littered with classic horror references. The opening titles design, the babysitter, Satanism. Even some parts of the music score is identical to the famous Halloween score.

Now then, this film is very slow. It takes it time to build up, in fact, it takes the main character 30 minutes to reach the house. Thank god then that Samatha was likable. Now, it doesn't matter how slow a film starts, i mean the shining is regarded as slow but there one big contrast between the film's build up. One goes somewhere the other doesn't . Once we finally get to the house, we do nothing more than watch Samatha stroll around for the rest of the film.

West atmosphere is perfect, his camera work was great, the suspension was brilliant but nothing ever came from these very few moments. The suspense just keeps building , West keeps on adding more fuel onto the fire until finally he runs out and the credits starts rolling . Very little happens and when we do reach the final act, it ends up being boring and forgettable.

This film looks great but sadly , the script is poor leaving a potential film into a easily forgettable one. If you particularly enjoy watching people do nothing for a hour and 10 minutes, then this is highly recommended

Cash-strapped student Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) accepts a 'babysitting' job at the home of elderly couple The Ulmans (Tom Noonan & Mary Woronov), despite plenty of warning signs that something is not right with the gig: she's being offered far too much money for the job; Mr. Ulman and his missus are waaaay too creepy; and there isn't even a child to look after!

Masquerading as a movie from the golden age of the slasher (late 70s to early 80s), The House of the Devil has been designed to appeal to old-school horror fans who like their films to take the time to develop atmosphere and build tension. Utilising convincing lo-fi visuals, a cool synth score, a retro title sequence, and neat period details (Farrah Fawcett flick hairstyles, a huge Walkman personal stereo, a rotary telephone with a cord), director Ti West painstakingly recreates the look and feel of the era. Unfortunately, he pays a lot less attention to the pacing and, after an hour of extremely slow build-up during which we get a few well crafted moments of tension but an awful lot of uneventful padding, the film erupts in a clumsy, rushed and chaotic last act that feels like it was grafted on from an entirely different movie.

With a tad more time spent rounding out his antagonists, a bit more detail about their nefarious plans, and a little less pizza-eating, West might have had something really special on his hands: a truly effective homage to grind-house horror. Instead, The House of the Devil proves to be a rather frustrating exercise in style over content.

I find it impossible to give this movie less than a seven, because, even if the ending was absolutely a letdown, the first 80% of the movie was so excellently constructed that its cinematic value cannot be lessened too greatly.

And excellent The House of the Devil is for most of its duration. Director/Writer/Editor Ti West shows a remarkable proficiency for being able to truly scare, through an excellent slow-burn build-up, allowing the atmosphere of the titular house and the anticipation for when it is inevitably released to bring a viewer to nail-biting fear, rather than simply trying to startle with constant Boo! Got'cha! "scares," or excessive gore. In the end, this method is far more effective and lasting, less artificial than the latter methods which seem to, unfortunately, be the bread and butter of modern American horror filmmakers.

However, when the denouement rolls around, this is completely thrown out the window. Sure, the gore may look nice (and indeed it does; not top of the line, but it belies the film's budget), but it completely abandons House's almost regal sense of restraint that worked so effectively for nearly the entire length of the movie. Not to mention, the transition in styles is itself so jarring that I was pulled from the experience for nearly 10 minutes, an unfortunate occurrence when that covers almost the entire duration of the remainder. The release of the built up fear was clumsy and ineffective, and the effect of the movie after the credits rolled was erased. I wasn't left with the feeling that something could be lurking just out of sight over my shoulder that the best horror movies provide; a tension that extends beyond the movie's run-time. This problem I believe to later be solved by Ti West's later film "The Innkeepers," a picture I believe (and seemingly in the minority) to be the superior movie.

However, despite its eventual letdown, the remainder of House of the Devil was truly a horror experience I rarely see from recent American horror films, this difference between House of the Devil and its peers thrown into sharp relief by the clearly nostalgic feel it gives off, even from the opening credits. Even the grainy camera shots add a sense of, for lack of a better word, enjoyable "retro" style, rather than becoming a detriment. And the camera work itself is also exemplary, snaking and twisting its way among the oppressive halls of the house that seems more an antique than something to be lived in.

The House of the Devil is unquestionably a good movie. For most of the film, I was completely drawn in, waiting with a rising anticipation to see what was lurking around the corner; The House of the Devil is truly scary even with its superficial sense of the mundane. Nothing is shown, save for one particularly haunting shot of what lies behind a door that remains (at least temporarily) unopened, and it is all the better for that. But this is before (please excuse the pun) everything goes to Hell at the climax. I'd certainly recommend this film; just don't expect the release to be able to come close to matching the rising action.

This is what the title says, a faux 80s movie that lacks all what made the cult classics good

The movie is extremely slow, it is like watching a slug cross the yard

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING happens until after the 1hr mark, it is all "build up" that builds to nothing

The characters are bland, the acting is ok, the premise is sort of predictable, but it fails to capture the escence of horror

There is nothing in the movie that makes you either say WOW or OMG that was scary

There is no real master mind, it is all very simple, and in reality dumb as can be

The only redeeming quality this movie has is that the main lady is not a lost little lamb that cannot defend herself and cries for everything, but the "revelations" come on the dumbest possible ways, and the actions make no sense

On the end it was. 90 minutes totally wasted imho.