Review of The House of the Devil (2009) by Arny B — 08 May 2011

Writer/Director Ti West presents a 2009 film that perfectly emulates the style of the 70's and 80's horror movies. The House of the Devil is a great homage with very likeable characters (which is rare in this kind of films), good acting, and beautiful cinematography.

The film introduces us to Samantha (Jocelin Donahue), who is looking for work to pay for a new apartment. When she gets a dubious babysitting job, her friend Megan (Greta Gerwig) drives her to a mysterious house, with even more mysterious inhabitants. And that's all I can say about the plot without ruining the surprises.

The film flows at a slow pace, but in my opinion every single shot is delightful. It takes its time to let you enjoy the camera work and style. The slow pace also works as a great and creepy set up that keeps you guessing what's coming next.

As I said before, the characters are part of what makes this movie great. It is truly rare to see such likeable main characters in a film like this, where normally you would just want them to die to see a creative death.

But the movie is not without faults. The main problem with "The House of the Devil" (and I could argue that it's actually the only problem) is that the pay off is not nearly as good as the set up. Besides the final revelation lacking in both concept and execution, the film suddenly abandons its great style and adopts a sudden fast editing that makes the final scenes feel kind of disjointed with the rest of the movie, but then the film returns to form in the last few minutes.

The House of the Devil is a great film that really knows how to play with the camera, and along with its great characters and directing, it presents us with a compelling visual style that is reminiscent of the 70's and 80's most memorable films, without actually copying them. If you let pass the final act's stumblings, you'll find that it is a very good horror film.