The House of the Devil (2009)
Average Rating: 7.2/10
Reviews Counted: 91
Fresh: 78 | Rotten: 13
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.
Average Rating: 6.8/10
Critic Reviews: 18
Fresh: 15 | Rotten: 3
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.
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Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 52,871
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Movie Info
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 sweet-natured and retiring young woman, unlike her rambunctious, loud, and self-assured best buddy, Megan (mumblecore stalwart Greta Gerwig). After moving into a new apartment, Samantha is desperate for a way to make a few more bucks. When Mr. Ulman (Tom Noonan) comes on campus looking for a babysitter,
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Cast
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Jocelin Donahue
Sam -
Greta Gerwig
Megan -
Tom Noonan
Mr. Ulman -
Mary Woronov
Mrs. Ulman -
AJ Bowen
Victor -
Dee Wallace
Landlady -
Danielle Noe
Mother -
Heather Robb
Heather -
John Speredakos
News Anchor -
Mary B McCann
Woman Anchor -
Brenda Cooney
Nurse
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All Critics (91) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (80) | Rotten (13) | DVD (7)
The film's nostalgic design is subtle enough not to dampen the seriously sinister atmospherics.
Top CriticIn keeping with his models, West is concerned with not suspense exactly but the ritual withholding and ultimate lavishing of bloody chaos.
West, a rising young director of minor cult pleasures, comes clean here about his love for all things Bava (Mario) and Carpenter (John).
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.
Even the familiar tropes of The House of the Devil are familiar in the right way, like an old, bloodstained sweater.
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.
The problem with it, and with House of the Devil, is that it's mostly pedestrian stuff leading to a pay off that's just not enough.
Sam's end is disturbing but also banal, even silly, but the end is not the point. The point is your anticipation.
The House of the Devil isn't just a movie: it's an experience. It joins the league of Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist and The Omen as one of the most diabolical entries in the modern horror library.
In this era of torture porn and slasher pics, House of the Devil is a shining example of how to build atmosphere and tension the old-fashioned way.
If you don't get a kick out of watching doomed babysitter Samantha put on that portable cassette player and dance around that creepy house to the strains of the Fixx's "One Thing Leads to Another," you might need a course in Horror Appreciation 101.
Laden with dread and executed with a musician's sense of timing, The House of the Devil is better than a substantial number of the films it resembles.
A virtual refutation of all of the conventions of contemporary horror that manages to be terrifying precisely because it refuses to give you that gratification until you've almost given up wanting it.
The sudden climax is a gore-drenched bonanza of Satanic delirium that seems to be making up for the calm that came before, if not spoofing the very idea of cinematic payoff.
Now this is how you make a scary movie. The House of the Devil is a delicious throwback to the golden era of Hollywood horror -- one that is unapologetically earnest and overwhelmingly committed to the task at hand.
It's full of meat and marrow. I'm going in again.
...there's simply never a point at which the almost distractingly uneventful narrative becomes as compelling as one might've hoped.
The pay-off is a little far-fetched, but by then we have had our emotional workout.
The power of this film lies in the approach to the inevitable final act, rather than the realisation of the act itself.
The finale descends into predictable mayhem, but it's the build-up that'll haunt you.
A master of the slow-burn, West carefully creates an atmosphere of clammy dread through Noonan and Woronov's off-kilter performances and dialogue, and direction that encases Donahue in shadow or squeezes uncomfortably close-in.
Imagine a bad Ken Loach film invaded by monsters from a George A. Romero movie that's run out of cash, and you've already visualised a movie better than this one.
Although the last reel is a little disappointing, the twist ending is a scream.
Things quickly get silly and unscary.
Both an authentically scary turn of the screw and a stunningly meticulous retro homage.
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Latest News on The House of the Devil
September 6, 2012:
Eli Roth and Ti West Unite for The SacramentAn intriguing horror collaboration, to say the least.
April 28, 2010:
Ti West Casts His Innkeepers"Last House on the Left" star Sara Paxton has joined Pat Healy and Kelly McGillis in the cast of...
October 29, 2009:
Critics Consensus: This Is It Is Certified FreshThis week at the movies brings only one wide release: the hotly-anticipated performance documentary...
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