Review of The House of the Devil (2009) by Shovik S — 25 Jan 2011

"Are you the babysitter?".

Genre: Thriller/Horror.

Runtime: 95mins.

Directed by Ti West (The Roost).

Screenplay by Ti West.

Cast: Jocelin Donahue (The Burrowers), Tom Noonan (Last Action Hero), Greta Gerwig (Greenberg).

A slow-burning horror film which feels like it's been taken straight out of the late 70's thanks to a fanatical approach to direction, setting & score. Director/Writer/Editor Ti West pastiches great old horrors such as 'Halloween, 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre & 'Rosemary's Baby' to deliver something which may not be as fun or as cool as the likes of Tarantino & Rodriguez 2006 'Grindhouse' effort or Rob Zombie's 'The Devil's Rejects' - but certainly beats both films hands down when it comes to authentic B-Movie suspense.

The amount of cheap scares are basically nil, whilst it would have been easy for the story to have skipped quickly to the screams we're instead treated to a solid 45 minutes of voyeuristic camera angles, watching the lead protagonist Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) do things a typically bored, desperate teenage girl in college would do as she hunts for a house to rent in order to get away from her messy, slutty room-mate - and then realises she must worry about the means to pay for it. A better analogy for the promiscuous & immature overspending of the 80's by middle-America (& the pain they have to endure to pay for it) will be hard to find, at least in the B-Movie counter of your local DVD store. This film combines great nostalgia with skillful camerawork (they rebelled against digital and used 16mm film) and a methodical approach to the build-up, it's let down slightly by some acting & a rather ham-fisted finale but that is somewhat true to the spirit of what they were trying to achieve so I find it hard to really be negative about that.

If you're after a bucket of blood you have a wait on your hands, a well worked creepy story slowly unveils itself and stays rooted in the realms of believability. The tenants of said house try to find a "babysitter" for their old mother on the same night a very rare total lunar eclipse will take place, evil Satanic plans of ritual & sacrifice seem likely to be afoot & the owners (played well by Tom Noonan & Mary Waronov) do well to creep the hell out of our young protagonist without going over the top too soon. Nostalgia rules over some scenes as they are stolen by old-school Coca-Cola cups, cool 70's/80's winter clothes, a Volvo 700 series & we're even treated to the beloved 80's film-making technique - the montage - as the babysitter turns on her Walkman and dances around the creepy old house (accompanied by a great 80's song 'One Thing Leads to Another' by The Fixx) - she plays pool, watches TV and orders pizza but the sense of foreboding creeps closer and closer as the moon begins to fill out black & the secrets of the house begin to reveal themselves.