The House of the Devil is a 2009 horror film written and directed by Ti West set in the 1980's and has to do with satanic cults. This movie already has my attention. Ti West had already had me on the edge of my seat while I was watching his segment in V/H/S (2012), which I found great until a very disappointing ending. The House of the Devil is about a college girl named Sam who needs money to buy a house. A little touch that I liked in the movie was that they gave us a reason why she needs a house for herself. A lot of horror movies wouldn't even bother giving us a reason, but this one made the effort. Sam see's an add for a baby sitting job on the campus bulletin board and decides to go and make some money. Thats all I'll say because this is a highly effective horror film and should not be missed by horror fans. There is a fine line between a film being boring and building tension. Ti West is right above that line. You could cut the tension with a knife throughout this film. Most of the movie is almost set entirely in one location, a creepy house in which our leading lady does not know the layout, and it makes for some very eerie scenes. All of the acting is perfectly fine for a horror film, nothing Oscar worthy but not bad at all. Sam (Jocelin Donahue) fits this role perfectly, she looks completely natural wearing 80's clothes and listening to her cassette player. A great part of this horror flick is that it looks like Ti West actually cared about what he was making. Most horror films of the past decade have been the same thing over and over that Hollywood just pushes out. Ti West's visual style is beautiful, he likes to film a lot of scenes in panning shots and in wide shots. He's got a lot of imaginative visuals in the film and some interesting shot constructions. From the opening shot I could tell I was in for something special visually. The only problem I had with the film is that the whole movie was a great build up and I found that the last 15 minutes were not very scary and a bit cliché. Without spoiling anything I will just say that the ending seemed almost overly violent and went the route of a lot of generic horror films. All in all, The House of the Devil is a great horror film with some highly effective scares that will keep you on the edge of your seat up until the disappointing finale.
Review of The House of the Devil
