Review of The House of the Devil (2009) by Matthew O — 10 Jul 2012

In the 1980s, college student Samantha Hughes takes a strange babysitting job that coincides with a full lunar eclipse. She slowly realizes her clients harbor a terrifying secret; they plan to use her in a satanic ritual.

The House Of The Devil' is a retro Horror delight. Forget the endless 1970's 1980's bad horror remakes and Quentin Tarrantino's Grind house messy exploitation flicks. Director Ti West has shaped a film which you would have found on an old blockbuster video store shelf collecting dust. From the teenagers 80's dress styles, to the large tape walkmans used, the opening retro track which would of been used in early Wes Craven or Dario Argento films, and title and end cards which is very 80's full stop. With creating a stylish horror throw back West has succeeded, this film screams out Roman Polanski at times and also the best of John Carpenter.

The film is a slow burner, with long setup and chilling build up before the big payoff with the last twenty minutes. The cast is excellent from the spunky babysitter, Jocelin Donahue, check out an 'All the right Moves' homage which both amusing and tense. Other performances come in a chilling performance from Tom Noonan and an understated performance from Mary Woronov.

Still all in all this is an impressive genre horror piece. Which despite finishing with a rather cheap conclusion, is still leagues ahead of the endless Michael Bay remake, and most of todays Hollywood's modern horrors, and America can now in small part be on par with other world Horror cinema.