Jocelin Donahue

Tom Noonan

Mary Woronov

Greta Gerwig

AJ Bowen

Dee Wallace

Heather Robb

Darryl Nau

Brenda Cooney

Ti West

John Speredakos

Lena Dunham

Danielle Noe

Mary B. McCann

Graham Reznick

Archie Van Beuren

Nicholas Bienstock

Andrea Verdura

Kamen Velkovsky

William M. Bradley

Jacob Jaffke

Larry Fessenden

Eliot Rockett

Zeke Dunn

Michael Drucker

Brent Kunkle

Melinda Ziyadat

Gordon Arkenberg

Amanda Jacques

Anthony Vincent

Peter Phok

Jayme Bohn

Lisa Hennessy

Chris Trujillo

Tim Linden

Kristie Leigh Palmer

Nate Slevin

Josh Neal

Ozzy Alvarez

Brenda Bush Johannesen

Dustin Bricker

Daniel Prokopenko

Rebecca Arndt

Brooks Toran

Michelle Sun

Jack Hutson

Erik Guldbech

Bart Grieb

Tracey Ruggiero

Christopher Vidaic

Robbin Park

Megan Nole

Eric Gitelson

Jeff Grace

Markus Goetze

Tom Efinger

Lisa Klein Moberly

Jeff Seelye

Tom Mone

Bryan Landes

Christopher Menges

Bill Dixon

Jason Sarrey

Jeremy Walker

Justin Benson

Ethan Rosenduft

Kevin R. Shields

John Moros

Dennis Franklin

Shaun Brennan

Robin Fitzgerald

John C. Loughlin

Marc Senter

E.L. Katz

Josh Braun

Lisa Fields

Roger Kass

Jade Healy

Greg Newman

Badie Ali

Hamza Ali

Malik B. Ali

Derek Curl

Horror

Mystery

The House of the Devil

Glass Eye Pix

MPI Media Group

Constructovision

RingTheJing Entertainment

United States of America

Adam CJ

By far, the SLOWEST horror film I've ever watched! Really don't waste the 95 mins it'll take to watch and be stupidly disappointed (stupidly, because you'll feel like an idiot for getting to the end of the film and realising you were being taken for one the whole time!). This film's writer/Director/producer(s) were clearly so besotted with false nostalgia for horror films of the 80s, that they misguidedly picked the worst flaws of the worst films of that era and replicated them here, believing themselves to be making something 'authentic' and true to that time. What they actually made would've been called crap then as much as it should be now! 90 mins of creeping around with no plausible characters, situations or even anything resembling actual *suspense*; then 5 mins of "whooaaah, look: blood and satanic ritual! Isn't that scary?!" Answer: NO, IT BLOODY WELL ISN'T! Now give me back the last 95 mins, you fools!

This one night changes everything for me.

Ti West seems destined to be one of those horror film directors who forever will polarise opinions. For those of us who love the slow burn approach and admire his evident adoration of retro horror, then he hits the mark. Reference The House of the Devil and latterly The Innkeepers. If those two things don't strike a chord with you then it's very likely that The House of the Devil will drive you nuts -  but not in a good way.

Plot is simple, Jocelin Donahue plays student Samantha Hughes, who has found the ideal apartment to live in, but needs funds to pay the deposit. Sooooo, answering a flyer advertising for a babysitter, she winds up at some spooky house out in the sticks, where the job isn't exactly what was as expected, and, well the night isn't as expected either...

It's her own fault really, if you ring the bell at a spooky isolated house and Tom Noonan answers the door, well then you should know better than not to run away! But I digress. West's film taps into the satanic panic that gripped certain parts of the states in the 70s and 80s, set in the early 80s the film is a vibrant homage to that era, with a real sense of time and place pulsing away as Samantha is set up for a night of god knows what.

The house is a splendid old creaker and within it Samantha always looks to be one cat's whisker away from being in peril. West doesn't go for continuous boo-jump scares, he lets us and Samantha use our imaginations to unnerve all parties. The screw is slowly turned until hell comes to the party, moving things swiftly to a frenetic finale that closes with a final denouement that old nick himself would approve of.

Dee Wallace Stone does a cameo to add more to the retro flavours, while Noonan and Donahue are superb. It's a film that is patient and asks you for your patience, so those of that ilk, and retro horror hounds too, will love it. Others, not so! 7/10

Nathan

After watching _X_ and _Pearl_, I was very excited to dive deeper into Ti West's filmography, unfortunately for me this one does not live up to the hype. This movie has a very old school feel to it, giving me flashbacks to the original _Halloween_ and _Friday the 13th_ with its film quality, atmosphere, and audio effects/music. I really enjoyed this aspect, and it left me feeling somewhat nostalgic. These feelings did not carry over to the rest of the film. I thought the plot was fine, although the main characters incredibly stupid decisions were the catalyst for the entire story. This is fine in slashers or an action horror film as the kills are what you are there for, but with this it felt cheap and left me unsatisfied. The movie lingers on scenes all too often, resulting in a very slow pace. I understand these long-drawn-out sequences were supposed to build tension, but it was not effective, and left be bored. I really wanted to enjoy this more than I did and unfortunately the best I can give this is an average rating.

**Score:** _51%_ |
**Verdict:** _Average_

The pacing is AWFUL, scenes drag out that have no plot relevance.

Other than that, it's a solid movie. It with a lot of fat trimming it could be a thousand times better. The movie takes place in the 1980s and the film used to do so really pulls in that grain.

English

The House of the Devil (2009) Official Trailer

Featurette

Official HD Trailer