THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL
In this film from 2009, a college sophomore named Samantha pursues and lands a babysitting gig only to discover that instead of a kid she’ll be staying with an elderly woman. At a large and isolated country house, Samantha explores without ever actually laying eyes on her charge, who allegedly keeps to herself upstairs. In a closet, Samantha finds a photograph that suggests the people who hired her might not be the actual homeowners. Samantha eats some apparently drugged pizza and passes out. When she comes to, she discovers the true nature of her employers.
House of the Devil reminds me a bit of John Carpenter’s Halloween in terms of its pacing: the first three-quarters of the story gradually introduce the characters and world, and then the final quarter has the viewer biting fingernails and sitting on the edge of the couch while glued to the screen hoping that the protagonist will survive. Unlike Halloween, however, House of the Devil has a terribly unsatisfying finale. I can’t get into specifics without spoiling the plot, but the last twist of this project packs none of the punch of the moment in Halloween when Dr. Loomis realizes that Michael Myers is not laying in the grass downstairs. House of the Devil looks and feels like a horror film from a bygone age, and indeed I believe it’s meant to be a period piece though the exact year in which the tale takes place is never stated. If you’re willing to sit through about ninety minutes of terrific suspenseful filmmaking to get to a letdown of a denouement, House of the Devil may be for you.
Cool blog -- you should chew these titles up a little more, get down and dirty with them. Are you going to move to the classics (Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Alien, among others)?
ReplyDeleteThis is my fourth year of reviewing scary movies annually online (though the first time I've started in August), so I've already covered Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street in the past. You can find archives of the 2008 reviews in my Facebook notes, and many from last year are at http://www.myspace.com/dooovall while the 2007 ones are at http://www.bebo.com/dooovall
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