Review of The House of the Devil (2009) by Harry W — 19 Jun 2015

See The House of the Devil as soon as you can. It's really good from start to finish and has such a captivating atmosphere and level of suspense throughout, its so unsettling. Paying homage to the "satanic panic" that ran rife through the States in the eighties the film seems snuff-like in its level of dirty, gritty terror and fear as it documents the story of a beautiful teenager struggling with money, who is tempted into the a tangled web of serial killings and a satanic ritual centering around peculiar lunar activity after simply seeing an ad for a babysitter needed.

The performances are good and its really hard not to grow attached to the likeable and ill-fated plucky protagonist and her best friend who manages for the most-part to avoid the horrors of the night, sort of.

.. It resonates of Rosemary's Baby clashing silently with The Amityville Horror, Virgin Witch and The Omen. The best thing about the film is the retro aspect in which it is filmed (there are opening credits and they're in yellow font, its shot in 16mm) but isnt afraid of blending elements of the eighties, seventies and sixties with the concepts and conventions of the horror we have become so familiar with in the past decade.

It's terribly dark and isnt afraid of mounting our suspense before having the train completely jump the tracks for the final act. I rarely give five stars to things that I've only watched once, but I can't think of a single thing wrong with The House of the Devil.

It's one of the best horror films I've ever seen and I couldn't look away until it was over.