House of the Devil – Review

House of the Devil is a horror film helmed by promising director Ti West (director of the upcoming Cabin Fever sequel) and it ventures back into the time when grindhouse films were in their prime instead of merely being used as beguiling homages in Quentin Tarantino films as they are today.

The film starts off in 1983 with likable and down on her luck college student Samantha, (played by Jocelin Donahue) who is on her search for the perfect apartment so she could escape her roommate from hell that sleeps all day and beds men all night in their repugnant dorm room.  When a friendly landlord (Dee Wallace) takes pity on Samantha and offers her residency in the perfect apartment, Samantha thinks her luck has changed—until she remembers she’s dead broke.

Having only until the end of the weekend to hand in her first month’s rent, Samantha calls an ad for a babysitting job for the peculiar Ulman family. (Played by notable character actors Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov) Although being wary of the details and being offered far too much money for the night, Samantha’s despondency takes over her suspicions and despite her best friend’s wishes, she takes the job and eventually discovers that she has entered the House of the Devil.

As soon as the title House of the Devil appeared on the screen in giallo yellow during the film’s freeze framing and hair breezing sequence, it is clear that West’s intention is to make a true throwback to the early eighties Grindhouse era. However, he avoids the use of social subjugation of women and he also steers clear of glamorizing the style of the eighties which is something unheard of yet refreshing to see. Aesthetically speaking, House of the Devil’s look and feel has a certain panache missing in so many other genre films that many horror fans will embrace this film just for its noble intentions despite its substandard execution.

Unfortunately, this slow burn of a thriller proves to be too slow and with just a simple change of the film’s title, all could have been forgiven. The film takes its time to create unnerving tension (without overabundant boo scares) in the viewer while also killing screen time by having classic eighties rock tunes serenading the easily nostalgic, but after an hour has passed, the only thing viewers know about Samantha is that she is nosey and into ‘The Fixx.’

Aside from one shocking scene in the middle of the film, the horror remains dormant until the last twenty minutes when the Ulman family reveal their so-called “latent” intentions. The finale evokes the same thoughts and emotions viewers would have if they ever do show Thomas Jane’s package in Hung—‘That’s it? That’s all we get?’

The title makes it clear what Samantha will get herself into from the get-go and even though the film looks exceptional and provides a prevalent and yet eerie sense of dramatic irony to the mix, it also misleads viewers into thinking the tale is more about the suspenseful escape rather than the horrific journey of discovery.

House of the Devil is not a horror classic by any means, yet despite its shortcomings, it is able to take viewers back to a time when horror reigned at the video store and the love for the genre was stronger than ever. It definitely won’t make any top ten lists for the year, but it is definitely worthy of hard earned honorable mention.

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