The House of the Devil

VANITY FAIR

Jason Zinoman April 30, 2009

The House of the Devil, which recently opened at the Tribeca Film Festival during a good year for indie horror fans, is the rare scary film that does not pander to its audience. Set in a desolate college town in the 1980s, the movie, which includes lots of feathered hair and tinny synthesizer music, tells the familiar story of a babysitter all alone, an unsettling phone ringing and an empty knife rack. But those looking for an homage to the slasher era will be disappointed. Director Ti West cares less about plot and gore than establishing a rigorously naturalistic mood, which he details with the precision and care of the early films of Roman Polanski. Most provocative of all is the movie’s pace, stunningly slow, boasting long, creepy scenes of empty windswept streets. Mr. West—a thinking man’s horror director whose film borrows its title from Georges Melies’s 1896 silent short, widely considered the first horror movie—understands that to truly terrify, you must first do the heavy lifting of suspending an audience’s disbelief. In a recent online interview, West complained that his producers, surely fixated on shrinking attention spans, cut the movie without consulting him, which may be the reason why despite all its stylistic sophistication, House of the Devil still seems a little slighter than it should be, as if it were missing some necessary anxiety-producing subtext. Patience sadly is no virtue in the current horror genre.Much more of the moment is the accelerated outrageousness of Hysterical Psycho, a slaphappy lampoon also opening at Tribeca that flaunts its movie references much more conspicuously. The blood spills quickly and often as soon as a theater troupe of attractive young people (strangely intense nerd? Check. Virgin with big boobs? Check) visit an isolated lakeside retreat where they are hacked to pieces, one by one. Director Dan Fogler, making his directorial debut, packs almost every crowded, askew frame with inventive visual gags and much of the fun of the jittery exercise, which began as Fogler’s preparation for an upcoming movie, Number 13, in which he plays Alfred Hitchcock, is spotting the in-jokes (a boat named Tippy!). The rest is just glorying in gore. When the killer rips out someone’s heart out and spreads the slimy thing all over his body, he looks like he’s having the time of his life.

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PAPER MAGAZINE

Dennis Dermody February 3, 2010

Out on DVD is one of my top ten favorite movies of last year: The House Of The Devil. This deliciously demonic tale by the talented director Ti West (Trigger Man), set in the 1980s, is about a pretty college girl named Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) who unwisely accepts a “babysitting” job at a spooky house in the country harboring many satanic secrets. She should have seen it coming based on the two weirdos who hire her, the skull-faced and looming Tom Noonan and the sardonically menacing Mary Woranov. West subverts the horror genre film playfully by insidiously setting up the mood and letting it eerily and slowly play out before slamming home with a fiendish finale. Tracking shots of Samantha wandering through this weird house with strange noises coming from behind closed doors keeps you marvelously unnerved and unsettled. For a promo they sent out the movie on VHS in the old big box format which made me crazy because the movie is such a perfect time machine back to those satanic drive-in favorites. The DVD has commentary with the director and star as well as behind the scenes footage and deleted scenes…

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INDIEWIRE

Eric Kohn April 30, 2009

Ti West’s “The House of the Devil” is a wet dream for horror fans, but that should not limit its audience. The classical structure slowly builds tension before erupting into a decisively gory finish, harkening back to a smarter and more nuanced era of spooky storytelling. West’s last feature, the highly experimental “Trigger Man,” challenged audiences to remain patient for roughly half the running time before the aimless plot gave way to a massive slaughterfest. “Devil” also takes its time, but maintains a delightfully creepy aura throughout, while also functioning equally well as a low key study of youth alienation. West’s leading lady, the talented Jocelin Donahue, plays Samantha, a young college student strapped for cash. Thanks to the efforts of her upbeat friend (Greta Gerwig), Samantha lands a babysitter gig at an ancient mansion in the woods. The job, however, turns out to be a lot crazier than she expected. The eerie man responsible for hiring her (Tom Noonan, appropriately deadpan) admits he has no kids, only a strangely absent mother. His real motives don’t emerge until the fast-paced finale, allowing the aura to toy around with the viewers’ imagination. As Samantha wanders around the vacant mansion, West develops a constant sense of dread, which forces us to pay close attention to the character, grow comfortable with her — and worry for her safety. (As Satanic worshipping creeps into the story, that becomes a reasonable concern.) West’s style culls from the vibe of late 1980s horror (and subtly sets the movie in that period), but it’s his authentic filmmaking skill that makes “Devil” such an enthralling experience. Unlike the miscalculation of “Grindhouse,” West’s movie relies less on homage than on narrative refinement. His unseen sequel to Eli Roth’s “Cabin Fever” lies on Lionsgate’s cutting room floor, but “Devil” indicates the director will continue to churn out top-notch work.

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TWITCH

Todd Brown April 19, 2009

Ti West has been pretty much the unofficial wunderkind of American horror since the arrival of The Roost a few years back – the kid with all the promise who was supposed to be the guy to watch going forward. Triggerman didn’t do it for him and I doubt shooting a direct-to-video sequel to Cabin Fever is going to, either. But House of the Devil? House of the Devil just might. I had the chance to catch this one in a Berlin market screening and this is by far the best thing to come from West so far and I’d say also the very best of the recent output from Larry Fessenden’s Glass Eye Pix. Casually evoking the 1980s era that it is set in without ever sliding into camp, House captures all the best elements of the low budget indie horror of that era with absolutely none of the waste. It’s lean, effective film making and about to make its public debut at the Tribeca Film Festival next week.

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Roger Ebert

November 11, 2009

Has there ever been a movie where a teenage baby-sitter enjoyed a pleasant evening? And a non-demonic child? Sam gets a break in “The House of the Devil.” She discovers there isn’t a baby at all. Only the aged mother of Mr. Ulman, a sinister man played by Tom Noonan, who is my choice to portray The Judge in Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, and if you have read that gruesome masterpiece, there is nothing more I need say about Mr. Ulman.

Sam (Jocelin Donahue) is a perky college student saving money for a deposit on her own apartment. She puts up signs around the campus asking for her baby-sitting services, and after she takes one of them, Mr. Ulman takes all of the rest…

Sam’s friend Megan (Greta Gerwig) gives her a lift to the Ulman household, which they find way, way down at the end of a long, long road in the middle of a dark, dark forest. It looks like the House of the Seven Gables with three gables amputated. Mr. Ulman and his wife, Mrs. Ulman (Mary Woronov), greet Sam with hospitality laced with commiseration. The house is furnished in a way to remind you of aged maiden aunts who haven’t changed a thing since their parents died.

Mother Ulman is upstairs in her room, Mr. Ulman explains. He only told Sam there was a baby because some baby-sitters balk at the difficulties of old folks. But not to worry. Mr. Ulman more or less promises she’ll be no more problem than Norman Bates’ mom. Then the Ulmans depart because they want to observe the full eclipse of the moon, and you can’t even see the moon so deep in the dark, dark forest, you see.

Left alone on her own (Mother upstairs in her room and doesn’t make a sound), Sam pokes around. It’s sort of… creepy. Good thing she only snaps on the TV briefly; If the Addams Family came on, it might look familiar. And it might come on: This is the mid-1980s, when babysitters had more to fear from their employers than vice versa.

“The House of the Devil” has been made almost by hand by Ti West, who wrote, directed and edited the movie. He’s an admirer of classic horror films and understands that if there’s anything scarier than haunted house, it’s a possibly haunted house. The film may provide an introduction for some audience members to the Hitchcockian definition of suspense: It’s the anticipation, not the happening, that’s the fun.

This is the kind of movie that looks lighted by the full of the moon, which is a good trick during an eclipse. Sam is relieved when Mr. and Mrs. Ulman return, until they don’t seem prepared to give her the traditional ride home. She also meets Mother (Danielle Noe), who is considerably more spry than advertised. And there’s the family — handyman? — named Victor (AJ Bowen). And Mother’s room turns out to be far, far different than you might expect — and dark, dark.

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