he House Of The Devil is as perfect an 80's horror film as we'll ever get in this decade. The only thing missing is the giant clamshell VHS case. The look, style, tone, pacing, even the credits nail the feel of a flick your friends would've rented out for a slumber party, but weren't quite sure what it was about. It's fun for fans of the genre (yes, 80's possession horror is a sub-sect) but ADD-editing style fanatics should move along to the next defanged crappy remake.
The House of the Devil is the classic story of a nubile young coed Samantha, played by Jocelin Donahue and who could be the younger sister of Marion from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Samantha is enrolled at a sleepy college and has roommate problems.
Namely, her roommate is always having raucous sex, distracting from her scholarly duties. Samantha wants out, and has found an apartment that would suit her just fine. The only problem? She doesn't have the money to cover her check.
Samantha takes a long walk to the student center and finds a simple ad that reads "Babysitter Needed". She calls and speaks to Mr. Ulman (Tom Noonan, whose creepy voice you can tell immediately, and will alert you to the fact that something bad will probably go down). After a lengthy series of misunderstandings, Samantha finally makes her way to the house, where she meets Ulman. He is indeed creepy, but Noonan plays it so well, you're not sure if he's sinister or just a normal, albeit strange, individual. However, in case you couldn't glean it from the title, some bad things are about to go down at this house.
There have been a lot of movies lately that try to ape the aesthetics of past movies, but successfully incorporate them into the narrative. Some miss this point (The Good German, Grindhouse) while some are successful (Black Dynamite, this). The key is that they don't let the storytelling get in the way of the story. Ti West, the director, clearly loves his 80's horror films, but I sense that he went into this movie with the intention of making a film that could easily stand alongside these movies, not looking down on them. To this extent, he succeeds! He has crafted a wonderful sense of tension and dread that could also just as easily be paranoia in the mind of a cute young coed who hasn't been inundated with horror films.
(He also does a great job with the period setting details. My favorite being Samantha's walkman that's the size of a novel).
The performances make the film rise above as well. I have not seen Jocelin Donahue before, but she looks like she stepped out of the 80s. She's nice to look at, and she plays the character with the right amount of naivety and desperation that you believe she would put herself in the situations that she does. And Tom Noonan is just fantastic. Everytime he's on screen, you chuckle nervously, never sure what he's going to do next. The supporting actors are quite good as well, including A.J. Bowen, a familiar face to fans of The Signal.
The movie is deliberately slow. The pace is there for a reason. You have to invest in the film to get more out of it, but it sinks in long after viewing, and it is creepy. It's not about cheap scares, it's about subtle layers. If you're tired of the what passes for horror these days, and are looking for a fun, spooky flick with loads of atmosphere, do yourself and check out House Of The Devil.
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