Reliving the devil chillers of the 1970’s, “The House of the Devil” focuses on setting a fearful atmosphere that would bring viewers to the edge of their seats without feeling rushed by the end of the movie. Set in the early 1980’s is the story of college girl Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) who is desperate to leave her dormitory in lieu of an apartment with her friend Megan (Greta Gerwig). In order to pay for the first monthly rent, she answers a suspicious flier in their bulletin board for a babysitter. The man on the phone, Mr. Ulman (Tom Noonan) mysteriously wants a babysitter on the unusual night of a rare full lunar eclipse. Arriving to the isolated house in the middle of the woods, Samantha learns there’s more than babysitting duties she has to attend to as she struggles to save her life from her devil-worshipping clients.
Written, edited, and directed by Ti West, the film takes viewers into a roller coaster ride where tension is built up slowly at first before plunging into maniacal horror. What you would love about this film is how it carefully sets up its atmosphere from static shots of a room, weird camera angles, and a matching musical score that would make viewers anticipate that something is going to happen. It gives you the feeling of thrill, enthusiasm, and extreme tension as to what would happen to Samantha. Some may comment that the film is really slow and not focusing on the bloody screams, but that is not what the film is aiming for. If you’re the type of horror addict who prefer fast-paced thrills from beginning to end with no breather, then this is not for you.
The cast and crew had done an amazing job as well from Jocelin’s ultimate scream contributing to the film’s dread and Tom Noonan’s flawless depiction of his role. Jeff Grace scored high with rock-inspired scores while cinematography by Eliot Rockett provided the perfect chilling atmosphere.
Though the film takes time to build up, it would get viewers gripping their seats to see if Samantha could escape the house alive. For a new twist to horror flicks very untypical of the usual out-of-this-world scenes of bloody violence, “The House of the Devil” takes you to a new interactive tension-building horror ride you would never forget.
