11.11.2009

"This is huge, this one night changes everything for me" - The House of the Devil

I finished my work day early on this afternoon and had 4hrs to kill. I had been hearing great stuff about The House of the Devil and decided to go check it out.

It was awesome. It is your classic 80's "C" list sort of horror movie but done way better than films from the actual time period. An Official Tribeca film festival selection of 2009, the movie is shot to look as if it were actually made during the rise of the horror genre, the director ran a huge risk of being campy/cheesy in the worst way possible. But it seems like director Ti West knew exactly what he wanted to do and was able to execute it perfectly, I cant imagine it being shot in any other way or taking place in any other time.

The story revolves around a college sophomore, played by Jocelin Donahue, pressed for cash for a new apartment to escape her messy roommate. She miraculously finds a babysitting job posted on campus with only a few days to come up with her first months rent. To her friends reluctance she heads out to the house only to find out that there is no baby and she will in fact be watching and elderly woman. At this point she is offered more money than she needs and knows that she has to take this job despite being misled. Sit around, watch tv, order pizza and wait till midnight. Simple enough. After tons of suspense, bumps in the night start to get to her and things start to really get rolling.

The suspense in the film is well played, there was only a minute or two where I started to get a little antsy but overall I was on edge waiting to jump and I definitely did. I have been a fan of grindhouse/exploitation/C List movies for the last few years and it was awesome seeing a new one that was done right.

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