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House Of The Devil (2009)
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Movie Review by The Gravedigger
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10.20.09
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At the beginning of this movie a college girl is set to rent a house not too far from her college campus. She has a loud, sloppy roommate in her dorm, so is anxious to leave. The landlady of the place (Dee Wallace of THE HOWLING) likes her and agrees to waive the deposit fees. All looks up in the world for her.
Then the girl answers a want ad for a babysitter that's posted on a kiosk. She calls on a pay phone, gets an answering machine, and the guy calls her right back, telling her to meet him right away in front of the student union. She goes there and waits but he never shows up. However, when she gets back to her dorm there's a message from him--and she reluctantly agrees to accept the job.
Since she doesn't have a car and the guy's house is a ways in the woods, she gets her friend to drop her off. Things get even stranger when the old guy (Tom Noonan) explains that she's not really babysitting a child but will be watching his elderly mother. This is all too weird for her and she says she can't do this--but he offers her four hundred dollars fro what amounts to four hours work. This will pay her rent for a month, so she stays. Then she meets his even stranger wife (Mary Waronov) who seems like she came directly from the ADAMS FAMILY. Together, Noonan and Waronov remind me of the creepy old people from ROSEMARY'S BABY, which I'm sure is intended.
As the night progresses the girl gets more and more creeped out in the big old house until she discovers just why the man was so anxious to hire her for the night. Not only is it the night of a rare lunar eclipse, it's the night for a certain Satanic ritual....
HOUSE OF THE DEVIL is a very cool, old-fashioned horror movie that relies on the solid performances of its actors and steadily builds suspense. I also thought it very interesting that it takes place in the early 1980's. Even the title sequence,with its use of freeze frames and the groovy font of the letters, gives it a feel of a much older film. Even the title music would be a home in a Lucio Fulci movie. I enjoyed the movie far more than the director's previous horror movie, THE ROOST. Highly recommended.
Check out the interview with Director Ti West in the interview section of buried.com
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Rating: 8.0 out of 10.0 - 5 votes cast total
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