Review of The House of the Devil (2009) by Rob C — 06 Sep 2012

Director Ti West's The House of the Devil is probably one of the better horror films that's been released in the last couple of years. The film doesn't rely on heavy gore or non-stop action, but gives us a slow tension builder until the final act.

Each scene is crafted just right and has our young character in struggling coed Samantha try and find a way to make some extra cash for her new apartment. She stumbles on a paper posted on a bulletin board outside her campus looking for a babysitter.

However, once she pulls up to the house and meets its owner, she starts to get uneasy about the whole thing. The storyline is predictable and doesn't offer anything new to the horror genre. But it's in the way West delivers his film, a homage to the horror films of the seventies and eighties with its grainy look and feel, that makes this film a treat for us horror purists.

Every angle feels like a product of that time, even adding an eighties score with The Fixx gracing themselves on one of my favorite scenes where Samantha is dancing around the house with her headphones.

I believe more directors should follow suit to Wests lead, and not be all obsessed with that big money set-up in their films. Every horror director nowadays tries to out beat one another in the jolt department, giving us bland and nauseous scenes like clockwork.

And really all they have to do is keep it simple and just rely on buildup and character study. Ti West knows his horror and I hope he continues down this same path in his future work.