It favors tension over spectacle while delivering a palpable sense of helplessness.
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02/07/10
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The House of the Devil (2009)
86
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:66
Fresh:57
Rotten:9
Average Rating:7.1/10
Consensus: Though its underlying themes are familiar, House of the Devil effectively sheds the loud and gory cliches of contemporary horror to deliver a tense, slowly building throwback to the fright flicks of decades past.
Theatrical Release:Oct 30, 2009 Limited
Synopsis: A coed struggling to pay her rent ends up taking the wrong part-time job in writer-director Ti West's old-school, 1980s-set horror flick THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL. Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) is a... [More]
Starring: Jocelin Donahue, Greta Gerwig, Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov
Director: Ti West
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Reviews for The House of the Devil
By trading in loud and increasingly low-dividend "shocks" for well-earned dread and fear, West immerses the audience in a genuine shared experience.
02/05/10
Além da excelente ambientação de época (e da própria estética setentista), West concebe uma narrativa bem construída e tensa, resultando num filme tenso e eficiente.
02/04/10
A very impressive formal exercise in style and restraint... [Blu-ray]
01/24/10
The heroine walks about campus doing errands for about 20 minutes, then some semblance of a plot begins. Just too slow for horror fans. Paul Chambers, CNN.
01/11/10
In keeping with his models, West is concerned with not suspense exactly but the ritual withholding and ultimate lavishing of bloody chaos.
12/17/09
Top CriticFans seeking the immediate gratification of random shocks and sudden gore will be disappointed, but anyone savoring a sense of dreadful anticipation and menace will be enthralled.
12/03/09
West, a rising young director of minor cult pleasures, comes clean here about his love for all things Bava (Mario) and Carpenter (John).
12/03/09
Top CriticLess is more, and writer/director/editor Ti West knows it -- until he forgets near the end of this babysitter-in-peril nailbiter.
12/03/09
There's a payoff in The House of the Devil, if you have the patience. Some of the scenes seem draggy, but the characters are complex, and their motivations are explained.
11/19/09
Top CriticThere is a lot about The House of the Devil to admire but West ultimately likes the slow burn a bit too much and it fizzles out.
11/13/09
It may not completely succeed as a horror film, though I would take its deliberately funky and low-key vibe over the hard-sell nonsense of "Paranormal Activity" any day of the week.
11/13/09
A first-rate chiller.
11/12/09
The cinematic equivalent of foreplay. It's all about building mood, teasing us, and, in between the lines, promising an eventual payoff.
11/12/09
Even the familiar tropes of The House of the Devil are familiar in the right way, like an old, bloodstained sweater.
11/12/09
Top CriticThe 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.
11/12/09
Top CriticIf you like horror movies that actually have some artistic merit to them, this is definitely one of the more noteworthy pictures of the year.
11/07/09
The film is a perfectly pitched old-school horror homage to a '70s/'80s-era of cinema that should have been.
11/02/09
If you love a nerve-stretching build up to a seriously creepy payoff, you'll want to see for yourself.
11/02/09
Ti West knows how to set up his prey for the kill
11/02/09
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