Review of The House of the Devil (2009) by Noel B — 11 May 2010

Watching this movie was love at first sight; the late 70's/early 80's setting and yellow titles reminding me of classic exploitation movies of that era. It made me realise just how much I missed old school US horror film making. It was so refreshing to have a slow build up of tension without any false scares for quite some time. The atmosphere and premise was really creepy and I was more excited watching it than I had been over a horror for a while. I felt I'd discovered a new classic.

Unfortunately the movie does suffer from some problems. Firstly, whilst I love a slow build up, it did have pacing problems; it was a little too slow moving and when the climax arrived it may have been satisfyingly horrific but was over a little too quickly. Secondly, characters did really stupid things on occasions, especially the leading lady. One example is when she could have taken a gun from someone but chose to run up some stairs without it.

I give this an 8 out of 10 for a great attempt at bringing back classic US horror film making when it is sorely needed. I do think TI West is a Writer/Director to watch out for; if he can address the problems mentioned then in the near future he could bring us a bona fide classic. In the meantime, this near classic is more than satisfactory.