The House Of The Devil

[Acapelli]

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/08/25/images/20090825_houseofthedevil_560x8 30.jpg


Set in the 1980s, college student Samantha Hughes (Jocelin Donahue) takes a strange babysitting job that coincides with a full lunar eclipse. She slowly realizes her clients plan on using her in a satanic ritual.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-zJ5eQsjxw

[Dead & Messed Up]

According to the trailer, an idiotic girl practically begs to be used in a satanic ritual. The retro aesthetic looks reasonably interesting, although I'd rather horror directors push forward than pilfer the past.

[Acapelli]

i just really like the poster

[Kurosawa Fan]

The trailer keeps sticking right when the old man sits down to talk with the girls. I've tried it on Firefox and IE and the result is the same. It loads all the way, but won't play past that part.

[EvilShoe]

The trailer keeps sticking right when the old man sits down to talk with the girls. I've tried it on Firefox and IE and the result is the same. It loads all the way, but won't play past that part.
You lead such a tough life.

[Kurosawa Fan]

You lead such a tough life.

Don't trivialize my pain.

[Dukefrukem]

WANT to see this

[Sycophant]

I like that poster.

[Bosco B Thug]

Beautiful poster, yes. Tagline doesn't make much sense, though... it doesn't strike any chord of cleverness, or implicated logic, or... anything really. Except that you must be for some reason young enough to actually have "homework." Irks me.

Anyway. I like the trailer. It really looks and feels like a pre-90s horror film.

[number8]

A lot of effort went into making that look authentically 80's. I'm not sure they should've.

[megladon8]

It's by the guy who did The Roost, which is one I've wanted to see for a while. Produced by Larry Fessenden, whom I've found to be a fairly unique voice in horror lately and I appreciate his constant attempts at bringing new, similarly off-beat people into the filmmaking world.

[Grouchy]

I almost wish it wasn't a "retro"-type experiment, because I think the premise is pretty good stuff already... and because I'm growing a bit tired of the gimmick.

Regardless, I really want to see this.

[Kurosawa Fan]

This is premiering on HDMovies on October 28th. Just a heads up to anyone interested.

[Dukefrukem]

what is HDMovies?

[Kurosawa Fan]

what is HDMovies?

A channel that only broadcasts high definition films, commercial free and unedited. They have at least one film per month that they show one time only before it hits theaters. Here's their website (http://www.hdnetmovies.com/) (and here's the list of early premieres (http://www.hdnetmovies.com/movies_sneakpreviews.html)). I know a few others here also get this channel. The early premieres are usually OnDemand as well, but they cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $10, whereas their broadcasts are obviously free. I just set them up to record and watch them later.

[Dukefrukem]

Thank you for your interest in HDNet Movies. Unfortunately, Comcast does not carry HDNet Movies

fuck

[Kurosawa Fan]

fuck

Bummer. It's a solid channel. Keep sending requests to Comcast.

[Wryan]

Great poster. Hilarious taglne. Tom Noonan. I prob still won't see it, but...

[Kurosawa Fan]

Wife and I watched this tonight. It was good. Not great, but good. I'll warn anyone who's planning on watching it: it requires patience. All of the action is in the last 20 minutes. For the most part it works though, as the atmosphere is very effective. The sense of isolation, set up perfectly by the era and setting, makes the experience all the more intense. From the moment Sam enters the house there's a constant sense of dread, and I was tense the entire time. It drags that feeling out a bit too long, but once the shit hits the fan it's pretty wild and disturbing. Could have done without the final twist though.

[Raiders]

Wife and I watched this tonight. It was good. Not great, but good. I'll warn anyone who's planning on watching it: it requires patience. All of the action is in the last 20 minutes. For the most part it works though, as the atmosphere is very effective. The sense of isolation, set up perfectly by the era and setting, makes the experience all the more intense. From the moment Sam enters the house there's a constant sense of dread, and I was tense the entire time. It drags that feeling out a bit too long, but once the shit hits the fan it's pretty wild and disturbing. Could have done without the final twist though.

Good to hear you liked it. I had mentioned a couple days ago I was really interested in seeing a Ti West film (moved Trigger Man to #1 on my Netflix queue).

[number8]

Have you seen Dead & Lonely?

Or as I call it, Vampire Mumblecore.

[The Mike]

Liked this a lot.

It made me wish people had kept making supernatural horror movies after the '70s ended.

[The Mike]

Wife and I watched this tonight. It was good. Not great, but good. I'll warn anyone who's planning on watching it: it requires patience. All of the action is in the last 20 minutes. For the most part it works though, as the atmosphere is very effective. The sense of isolation, set up perfectly by the era and setting, makes the experience all the more intense. From the moment Sam enters the house there's a constant sense of dread, and I was tense the entire time. It drags that feeling out a bit too long, but once the shit hits the fan it's pretty wild and disturbing. Could have done without the final twist though.

I agree pretty strongly with this, especially the bolded part.

Great horror musical score, too.

[The Mike]

Plus, '80s pop music to lighten the mood. I'm sold.

[megladon8]

I really want to see this.

[Henry Gale]

I thought this was just alright...

From the very beginning everything from the font in the white opening titles to the way the film looked (16mm I'm assuming), the music; they nailed it. Then it kind of sits there for a long time.

I understand building tension for something like this, but there's a big difference between that and just having things quietly happen, sometimes over and over again and then having it all be unleashed really quickly and loudly with little payoff. If this were something like Haneke's Cache, then maybe it would have realized having something savoured onscreen has to allows the viewer to feel like paying attention and participating in its mystery has a reward to it instead of just having loud noises and muffled thuds be the way of making silence suddenly shocking. It all came off more boring than gripping to me.

The house itself has a very distinct and awesomely creepy feel to it, but I didn't think those scenes of Samantha slowly wandering around it for several minutes did a very good job of establishing the geography of it for when some action does happen and that sort of thing seems necessary to know later on. Let me give a really crude comparison: When shit went down in Home Alone, I knew where shit was going down.

All of this wouldn't be so disappointing if it had at least kept that feel into the final act. It goes from having such a beautifully dull and untouched look to a much harsher, modern DTV Horror flick. And I thought the twist was already made quite clear before it was "revealed".

So ultimately, it feels like it should be half its length with the plotting it has, because the way it's expanded over such a long run time ends up hurting it instead of padding itself out nicely. Overall there was so much potential here, and it sucks too, because oh how I love that poster.

**

[megladon8]

If anyone's interested, Amazon.com has this available to stream or for temporary HD download with their "Theatrical Rental" program.

Link is here. (http://www.amazon.com/House-Devil-Theatrical-Rental/dp/B002R5OWQY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=digital-video&qid=1259793441&sr=8-3)

[number8]

So they sent us a screener copy, and it's on VHS.

:lol:

Well played.

[Wryan]

Very nice.

[Bosco B Thug]

This was quite excellent. This definitely shows Ti West's talent. He is an odd duck - he has the aplomb for creep of any young schlockmeister, but mixed with this is his finnicky, high-brow pretensions that are completely stylistic, not quite substantive, but still rather intelligent in their aptitude for what makes the mundane really creepy. He gets away with a lot while being of a callow mindset that good films are made by "BIG, SHOWY GESTURES!!" and stroking audiences' high-style receptors, in whatever genre. In other words, he's the horror genre's answer to the cute indie-comedy director.

But instead of the music video antics of indie comedies, this film's high-style is in its slow build-up, which (considering (500) Days of Summer was a "5" and this is a "6") is just inherently a bar up. It spends an inordinate amount of time with the sublimely personal space of the main character, coming to a head in her boredom-induced pool game and dance revelry (wonderful sequence) before things go to the crapper. The film makes stunning regular use of moments when the camera momentarily escapes her personal sphere, like the pan out from outside the window she looks out of, or a flooring moment when she looks into the basement while listening to her walkman.

Also, boo to the final scene. I'd have been much more creeped out not know what was going to happen to her

if she didn't kill herself (or attempt to, as it turns out).

[megladon8]

I'm not trying to start a petty ratings discussion here, but a 6 is "quite excellent"?

[Bosco B Thug]

Oh yeah, I just decided it's time to find out what Ti West looks like:

http://www.dreadcentral.com/img/news/sep09/tiwest.jpg

Am I surprised? No, no I am not.

[Bosco B Thug]

I'm not trying to start a petty ratings discussion here, but a 6 is "quite excellent"? We like our odd, so-idiosyncratic rating-review discrepancy here on Match-Cut. :)

Yeah. Excellent style, that is, often exquisite, such as the dance sequence I mention. But is the film overall quite as transcendent as its bits and pieces, or not as frivolous as it seems at the end? Averages to a 6.

[megladon8]

We like our odd, so-idiosyncratic rating-review discrepancy here on Match-Cut. :)

Yeah. Excellent style, that is, often exquisite, such as the dance sequence I mention. But is the film overall quite as transcendent as its bits and pieces, or not as frivolous as it seems at the end? Averages to a 6.


OK I was just a bit confused because you opened your review with "This was quite excellent", then I saw the rating of 6.

To me, a 6 is slightly above average. I guess I think like I high school teacher.

[Raiders]

Those last twenty minutes are insane.

I loved it for the most part once she enters the house (before that, it's almost too mundane). In fact, it's damn near flawless from that moment on. The shift in style for the final act is remarkably jarring and effective.

[Skitch]

Should be here today.

[Pop Trash]

This was quite good, even though it seems made more for formalist loving cinephiles rather than the Fangoria crowd (who might find it a snore). I was reminded a bit of the underrated The Strangers, in it's attention to detail, composition, sound, camera movements, and specific art direction and costumes. There's definitely long stretches (after the old couple leaves and the gal is hanging out in the house by herself) of what some people might call "pure cinema" and others might call "boring," but I liked it.

Ti West is definately a guy to watch, I just hope he doesn't use this as a calling card for dumb Hollywood crap in the future, and sticks to his guns about his style.

[Skitch]

I quite enjoyed it as well.

Didn't he charge into Cabin Fever 2 after this? I hear that's a steaming pile...

[The Mike]

I quite enjoyed it as well.

Didn't he charge into Cabin Fever 2 after this? I hear that's a steaming pile...
Pretty sure he did his part on CF2 before this one...they filmed in Spring of '07 and the studio tinkered with it til the DVD. West asked to get his name off it, but since he's not in the DGA the studio denied and he was stuck to it.

And I wouldn't say it's steaming, but it's definitely a pile.

[megladon8]

I just find it so exciting that such a young filmmaker is injecting new life into the belief that a good psychological horror, playing with tension and the audience's expectations, is so much more potent.

[Derek]

This was quite good, even though it seems made more for formalist loving cinephiles rather than the Fangoria crowd (who might find it a snore).

Why the "even though"? Should we feel bad for a crowd who finds it boring when 95% of the rest of horror films are tailor-made for them? I like your comparison to The Strangers, another film that focuses less on payoff than tension and suspense. I do prefer this one by a nose as I like how it took a by-the-book slasher setup and spent a majority of time teasing the audience with the possibilities of bloodshed. I actually found the first 70 minutes much more interesting than the final 20, but I'm definitely on board with this Ti West fella.

[Pop Trash]

Why the "even though"? Should we feel bad for a crowd who finds it boring when 95% of the rest of horror films are tailor-made for them? I like your comparison to The Strangers, another film that focuses less on payoff than tension and suspense. I do prefer this one by a nose as I like how it took a by-the-book slasher setup and spent a majority of time teasing the audience with the possibilities of bloodshed. I actually found the first 70 minutes much more interesting than the final 20, but I'm definitely on board with this Ti West fella.

No I don't feel bad...it just seems like the type of movie you would recommend only to certain viewers and perhaps not to others. Judging by it's rather low IMDB rating, I'm guessing many viewers will find it boring, that's all.

Oh and interestingly, The AV Club already made a write-up for this in their "New Cult Canon" column.

[megladon8]

Even better with a second viewing.

Did anyone else find the scene where she's dancing around the house to "One Things Leads to Another" to be the most unsettling scene in the whole film?

[Rowland]

I liked the film, but if I had to pinpoint one ill-advised creative decision over any other, it'd be to keep cutting back to that smoking douchebag outside of the house throughout the movie. Just because we saw the van in the house's backyard, did we need to see him smoking back there? Or, just because we saw someone hand her a pizza later on, did it need to immediately cut away to him walking away from the front door, smoking another cigarette? Talk about making the implicit unnecessarily explicit.

[megladon8]

I liked the film, but if I had to pinpoint one ill-advised creative decision over any other, it'd be to keep cutting back to that smoking douchebag outside of the house throughout the movie. Just because we saw the van in the house's backyard, did we need to see him smoking back there? Or, just because we saw someone hand her a pizza later on, did it need to immediately cut away to him walking away from the front door, smoking another cigarette? Talk about making the implicit unnecessarily explicit.


Jen and I were getting a little picky last night watching the movie for a second time, and realizing that so much of the cult's plan relied on pure chance.

What if the friend hadn't pulled her car into the graveyard to light up a cigarette?

What if Samantha had decided not to order pizza? Or decided to order it from somewhere else?

Also, how did the bearded guy get her call for the pizza? We had just seen him outside when he killed her friend, and the story takes place before cell phones.

[Bosco B Thug]

Did anyone else find the scene where she's dancing around the house to "One Things Leads to Another" to be the most unsettling scene in the whole film? It was definitely one of the film's best scenes; not sure I remember it being so unsettling... Unless you're talking about the resurrection of high waist jeans, which, why should you, they were worn well.


Jen and I were getting a little picky last night watching the movie for a second time, and realizing that so much of the cult's plan relied on pure chance.

What if the friend hadn't pulled her car into the graveyard to light up a cigarette?

What if Samantha had decided not to order pizza? Or decided to order it from somewhere else?

Also, how did the bearded guy get her call for the pizza? We had just seen him outside when he killed her friend, and the story takes place before cell phones. Good point with the last one. The other two I can accept as not being foreseen (the friend - after all, he thinks she's the babysitter at first) or, re: not ordering/ordering someplace else, there being a contingency plan. But regardless, your observations are getting at the complete unnecessary-ness of the whole ruse in the first place. I'm not sure if it was someone here I read, pointing that out that the film doesn't make too much sense.

[The Mike]

She didn't choose to pull into the cemetary, she hit something and turned to check it out. 'Twas a trap.

Also, I wrote off the pizza thing considering how often Noonan mentioned it. Maybe he had some subliminal cult power?

The last one...I dunno. I'm assuming there's a caretaker place at the cemetary that probably had a phone. Bigger question would be where did he get a pizza so quick?

[megladon8]

She didn't choose to pull into the cemetary, she hit something and turned to check it out. 'Twas a trap.

Are you sure? Jen and I have watched it twice now and neither of us remember her ever hitting anything. It seemed she just pulled into the cemetery for a smoke break.



Also, I wrote off the pizza thing considering how often Noonan mentioned it. Maybe he had some subliminal cult power?

I suppose this is an acceptable explanation since he seems to demonstrate other creepy "powers" - like calling her back at the pay phone seconds after she hangs up, knowing her dorm number to call her, etc.



The last one...I dunno. I'm assuming there's a caretaker place at the cemetary that probably had a phone. Bigger question would be where did he get a pizza so quick?

I assumed he had the pizza with him for a while because it looked pretty old and gross.

But still, how he got the call puzzles me.

[The Mike]

Are you sure? Jen and I have watched it twice now and neither of us remember her ever hitting anything. It seemed she just pulled into the cemetery for a smoke break.
Dunno, maybe I subconsciously put it in to make it make sense. Will have to check it out again.

[Skitch]

Want the girl chatting with the cult people for a while after her friend left? Wouldn't there have been enough time for beardy to kill the friend and head back to his nearby domicile in more than enough time to get the call from the now hungry and bored girl? She did fuck around in that house for quite a while...