My Review Of “The House Of The Devil” 2009

Ti West’s “The House Of The Devil” tells the story of Samantha Hughs. A college student in 1980 who falls prey to a family cult of devil worshippers. The film stars Jocelin Donahue, Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov, Dee Wallace, Greta Gerwig, and AJ Bowen. Jocelin plays Samantha, a young woman in need. In need of a home, money, and direction. She takes a babysitting job on the night of a special lunar eclipse. The job is not one that she takes lightly. Learning that the house resident she will be watching is not a child but an elderly mother she agrees to take the job for a good amount of money. Money that will solve her most recent problems. It will also be enough to move her into a new place, one that she desperately needs.Unfortunately for our heroine the job is a hoax. She has wondered into the most dangerous of webs and these spiders have big plans for Samantha. The homeowner’s are a family of Satanic cult members destined to bring the pure evil one into our world courtesy of Samantha’s womb.
This is a very well scripted story with a keen respect for the classic days of horror. The entire vibe of this film takes you back to the glory days of horror movies like “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Death Valley” with a cool nod to such classic films as “When A Stranger Calls”. Set in the first part of the 1980’s Ti West manages to bring the atmosphere of the decade into the future as well as vivid memories of the whole “satanic cult” scare that swept America in those strange days. Days that I remember vividly to this day. Stories of strange vans snatching blonde heading children to sacrifice for demonic reasons, and communal cults molesting children with the parents consent in the name of the devil. It was non-sense but for a child it is scary shit. It also brought my trips to the local park and public pool to a screeching halt for about a year. I period of 80’s history that I have mentioned many a time when talking about movies such as this cool little satanic gem.
The movie gives an eerie subdued air that builds slowly from the beginning until the main character takes that fateful trip out to the country side to babysit for a strange old man. This is a fresh approach to a classic tale of ‘the fly in the spider web’ fable. One with a sinister plot that unfolds with a rush of psychotic and sudden frenzy that brings a viewer to the edge of your seat cursing as the horrific scenes unfold. The suspense is a perfect tease for a grand and demonic finale. There is plenty of screams, blood, and exploitation-esque whispers in “The House Of The Devil”. The film also has a classic throwback feel of how naïve and unwitting the average mentality was in the 80’s.  The gore scenes are brutal and graphic with perfect shock value. The music is classic tunes from the decade that gave us Billy Idol and a whole host of  British New Wave music. One of my favorite scenes is where Jocelin Donahue dances around the house with her portable cassette player unaware that she is in the lair of a Satanic cult. Not to mention that the cast of characters that make up this family is one of the best homages to those creepy, evil and over-the-top characters from classic horror films. Watching Ti West’s vision in this film is reminiscent of seeing Tobe Hooper’s early films for the first time. This is a true cult classic for the modern horror fan.