The House of the Devil (2009) Review

The House of the Devil (2009)

The House of the Devil follows Samantha, a college student in desperate need for money who answers an ad for a babysitter, only to discover it’s no child at all, but a mother, in a house that holds a dark secret. 

Prior to The House of the Devil, I had not previously heard of Ti West, but if this any indication of his promise as a filmmaker, then count me in. In this homage to 70s and 80s horrors, we’re taken back to an era where satanic panic was heavy and strangers were truly strange. For the most part, the plot is relatively straightforward, acting as a mix of Halloween and When a Stranger Calls but with a more cultist feel to it that lingers in the atmosphere for a very, very long time, shrouding the reveal, as well as most of the horrors until the very end. But once we get there, boy is it fucked, sending us down a bloodbath of satanic sacrifice, conception, and the devil, acting in stark contrast to the relatively mild events leading up. 

The movie’s claim to fame though, while having a rather interesting story, is it’s dedication to replicating the look and feel of the late 70s/early 80s. And I don’t mean the bright colors, puffy hair, Stranger Things-y type efforts we get in retrospect. I mean the muted, drab colors, grainy film stock, and the overall filming methods that came with shooting and filmmaking of the time. It’s all so true to the period and if you weren’t the wiser, you’d think it was ripped right out of 1978. 

We get a solid cast, starring A.J. Bowen, Greta Gerwig, Mary Woronov, Tom Noonan, and Jocelin Donahue. Noonan puts forth a delightfully creepy performance but it’s Donahue who surprises here, pulling off that necessary innocence that flips on a dime to crazed survivor, who would rather die than give her captors the satisfaction of winning. 

The House of the Devil, directed by Ti West, is a passionate homage to the best era of horror, with West crafting an eerie air of suspense, tension, and fright that touches on the rarely dabbled in occultist craze of the time. 

8.9/10