Call it the best '80s babysitter-in-peril movie never made.
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10/08/09
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The House of the Devil (2009)
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Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:61
Fresh:53
Rotten:8
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
Puts to shame most major studio horror releases. Classy even while getting down-and-dirty, unusually savvy about the importance of tension and character nuance over viscera and a soulless body count.
10/08/09
Although the payoff is creepy, it takes a little too long to arrive -- and when it does, it's about as worn-out as the movie's title.
10/30/09
Top CriticIf you love a nerve-stretching build up to a seriously creepy payoff, you'll want to see for yourself.
11/02/09
To knock this movie for being slow is like knocking Airplane! for being silly. You might not dig the approach, but that doesn't make it a flaw.
05/04/09
The House of the Devil could have certainly turned out stronger with a shorter buildup and a more drawn out climax, but who am I to argue? I haven't been this scared watching a horror film in years.
10/30/09
With the suspense cranked so high, it's almost inevitable that the bloody finale comes as a bit of a letdown.
10/29/09
West... has all at once crafted a film that beautifully reproduces the look and texture of a straight-to-video horror from the '80s, and filled it with the sort of nail-biting tension that works in any decade.
09/09/09
The House of the Devil is not only set in the early '80s, but director Ti West chose to shoot and structure the film in a way so as to make it feel like it was made in the early '80s. In a way, this throwback style is reminiscent of what Quentin Ta
10/30/09
Less 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
This pitch-perfect genre throwback would be right at home among the creaky and weird supernatural thrillers of the 70's and 80's. (And yes, I mean that as a compliment.)
10/15/09
Devil is generously unassuming, making the film more of a secret handshake than a blood-spattered, deafening gorefest. The attention to mood and setting is marvelous.
10/29/09
There 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
skims away so much of the noisy and excessive clichés of today's terror flicks that it feels like a breath of fresh air
10/29/09
West avoids cliché and cheesiness with wise casting choices. Donahue's naturalistic performance is as persuasive as the subtly sinister portrayals by Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov.
10/29/09
The film is a perfectly pitched old-school horror homage to a '70s/'80s-era of cinema that should have been.
11/02/09
In the end, this homage to '80s horror is little more than a faithful flashback -- authentic in execution but about as scary as something you saw again and again way back when.
10/27/09
Top CriticTi West has been building a reputation among horror fans as an expert in the art of the slow burn, and more power to him for exhibiting something that seems to be increasingly rare in filmmakers in any genre: patience.
10/26/09
A fine example of how a talented filmmaker can tackle a horror sub-genre in a way that's stylistically reverential but also original in its own way.
10/27/09
The main reasons to see this deliberately retro and derivative flick, which borrows freely from Satanic cult and babysitter-from-hell subgenres, are iconic actors Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov in their first teaming.
10/27/09
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