The House of the Devil

It is a fine little old-school thriller.

Mr. West shows a real gift for the genre, particularly in his ability to generate dread with pinpricks rather than bludgeoning shocks, something even veterans twice his age have difficulty achieving. After years of vivisectionist splatter, here is a horror movie with real shivers.

West is far more adept at and interested in sustaining an unrelentingly ominous mood than in executing the genre-required spook shocks.

The film may provide an introduction for some audience members to the Hitchcockian definition of suspense: It's the anticipation, not the happening, that's the fun.

In keeping with his models, West is concerned with not suspense exactly but the ritual withholding and ultimate lavishing of bloody chaos.

By far the freakiest and most unnerving shocker in theatres this season.

This is the perfect illustration of the banality of most scare movies.

I found this film to be quite enjoyable and well worth the 90 minutes that it takes to watch. It's essentially split into 3 parts: setting up for the story, being in the house, and the climax of the story. The first part is a bit too long, as the premise is that a girl takes an odd babysitting job when she's desperate for cash, yet she doesn't enter the house until 30 minutes into the movie. However, it still helps to give context to who the characters are and I also thing it lends itself to the slow-building tension created throughout the film. You're still intrigued. Once she's in the house the movie really gets good. The acting is superb, as the family feels a bit off but just normal enough that Samantha decides to stay. It is very tense and you're glued to the edge of your seat. I also don't think the main character is a complete idiot like in many horror movies, and so the way she approaches the situation is probably similar to how anyone else would. I think this makes a bigger difference than one might realize. The climax is a real shocker, however there's some graphics at the beginning of the film that give it away a bit in my opinion. I think the movie would be much better actually if not for these graphics, as the events depicted in the climax are really cleverly hinted at throughout the film, but it would be much more shocking if you only had a slight idea they might be coming. Nonetheless, the film's end is thrilling and smart. It feels a bit rushed though, and again I think the first part should've been shorter so that the climax could've been optimized better. Normally it's probably a 7/10, but as others have pointed out I think this does a really good job of paying homage to the 80's classics that everyone loves. Specifically, this film reminded me quite a bit of Halloween, in how it's shot and how the scares are drawn from you. However the atmosphere, cinematography, and simplicity of it all really creates a great setup. Definitely worth the watch!

How many times have you heard people praise movies or TV shows just based on it's 80's theme and it's nostalgic references. It's happening all the time now. "Stranger Things" (TV show) "200 Cigarettes" "Wet Hot American Summer" The list goes on, but I don't want to be here all day. Yeah, it's cool seeing this film or music from the 80's there as the scene plays out. But why do I have this feeling that it's only there because the creator or director wants it there just because he likes that movie or song. The same goes with the setting and the feel that I think is missing in these homages. It just doesn't feel like it's the 80's, even if you throw in the endless references and throw backs. But then you get a film like "The House of the Devil" that went out of it's way to look and feel like one. It's seriously impressive of the amount of effort and detail that Ti West puts in this. It's the reason why I think "The House of the Devil" stands out from the rest in terms of what it's going for that others try to do. It's more than a homage, it's the real thing. Now Ti West can be a hit or miss for me. I either like or dislike he's movies. I do respect the guy for doing different projects and tackling themes in movie. I mean, sure, it's nothing new for directors tackling different themes, but for some reason I always keep an eye out for what Ti West dose next. And in "House of the Devil" Ti West brings a very slow burn movie that uses it's homages fittingly in it's film making. He demands you to be patient for what the movie is building up to and doesn't shy away from doing so. It was filmed with 16mm film, giving it a retro stylistic look that matched the decade, which actually did match the decade quite well. Now this what I like to see from Ti West and I can take this as a heavy reminder why this guy is a talented film maker even at a young age. But what stops "House of the Devil" from being a great movie for me is it's pasting issues. And I know the movie is building up to it's creepy climax as I said before, but it dose take awhile to get there. I found myself kinda bored with some scenes that seem to drag on a bit. I guess you got to have good patience, which I'm 50/50 on me. While I praise the film for getting the 80's look and feel right visually, but not quite on the audio or sound. Have you ever noticed in 80's movies where the sound of objects, doors and guns firing sound like 80's audio. How awesome would it be if that was included here. This may be a small complaint, but hey, every little detail can make a big difference. Overall rating: "The House of the Devil" may not be everyone's type of film, just judging by the mix feedback from other people. But for my experience, I enjoyed what I've seen, even if it feels short.

A strong atmosphere and stylized use of film grain with many other 70's-80's influences in costumes, props and even lens effects carry this barebones plot and screenplay to its inevitable extremely loud, violent conclusion. The casting and soundtrack are decent but the pacing, cinematography and dialogue never truly reached the intended horror potential it teases to offer the viewer. A flaccid but intriguing horror outing.

I love horror movies but this movie was pretty much a boring piece of crap. I went in with mildly high expectations since it got so much praise by the critics and was left severely disappointed. I don't know how anyone could have found this scary. I kept thinking if I can just stick with this movie through the boring parts I'll eventually get to the scary parts, but yep you guessed it. There are none. Not one. I'm being kind by giving this a 3.

Making me physically uncomfortable for 15 minutes does not make up for the fact that the other 80 minutes of this film are painfully boring. It started off alright, but took forever to get to where it was going. When it got there it really got there, but after such a long drawn out build up it came and went too fast.