The House of the Devil (2009)
In the 1980s, college student Samantha Hughes takes a strange babysitting job that coincides with a full lunar eclipse. She slowly realizes her clients harbor a terrifying secret; they plan to use her in a satanic ritual.
High praises to Director Ti West with this excellent attempt. House of the Devil avoids current pratfalls and absurd, over-the-top rubbish that placates most new horror flicks. Thumbs up for that. This is more of a subtle, intelligent suspense story that will challenge your wits.
However, it's far from perfect. This movie doesn't deliver anything very original with the premise. Another college student/babysitting type of setup. But the idea of a satanic cult touches on a sensitive nerve that is all too disturbing.
But the Devil never really gets his due. This movie has solid acting, good character development, and creepy sound effects. Unfortunately, not much of a payoff for your patience. The story tiptoes along, and finally reaches a frightening bloody climax. Too bad it ends so abruptly.
Overall, House of the Devil is a well told story that includes a little gore. Just not much else happening. 3.5 stars.
A movie made in the 2000s based on the 1980s. You really don't see that much and I loved that they did it. I guess there were some stories back in the 80s about Satanic rituals. This story was based off of one. I will tell you, I would not want to be in this girl's shoes. Staying in a big, old creepy house, by myself, watching an old woman I have never seen, really late at night. She was setting herself up for disaster. The main role was played by Jocelin Donahue, who made herself look like she came straight from the 80s. She had really good acting skills and I loved her role. But the one side character that really creeped me out was played by Tom Noonan. His voice was always so calm. It just made him seem like the creepiest guy ever. So basically Donahue stays in the house to watch what she thinks to be an old lady, but turns out she is stuck in a Satanic ritual. The film is not really that scary till the end. But it does have a lot of suspense that builds up to it. Some scenes will get you going. I recall a scene with a gun and someones face that really got me to shift in my chair a bit. They could of added a bit more scare factor in the film leading to the end, but the piece was still ok as is. Just would of been better the other way in my opinion. Again, another thing that does bring out with fright factor is that it is based on a true story. That always gets to me.
