The House of the Devil

If you really love 70’s genre horror, you’ll go bananas over this film. Otherwise, it’s an excruciating snooze fest. I fall into the latter category, and am of the opinion that just because you can make a film in a primitive style doesn’t mean you should. Seventies movies were scarier back then because they were cutting edge frightening at the time. Filmmaking has advanced since then, and while the old style is nostalgic, most of us don’t find it riveting.

Writer/director Ti West (The Wicked, The Roost) calls this “slow horror,” explaining that when the build-up takes its own sweet time, the payoff packs more punch. I don’t agree. I found it more of a slow snorer, with endless shots of the heroine strolling across campus in high waist jeans and winged Farrah hair. See the babysitter with nothing to do fidget and grow bored. Grow bored along with her.

The plot revolves around a college student (Jocelin Donahue) who wants to get her own apartment after living with a slovenly, slutty roommate a little too long. But to fund the new place she’ll have to get a job, so she responds to an ad for a babysitter posted on a campus notice board. The poster (Tom Noonan) seems a little creepy, but what the heck? He’s paying good money. Once she arrives at his creaky old house she finds that the situation is not what she expected, and you can guess from the title what happens after that.

By the time the scary stuff kicks in, about three quarters of the way through the movie, you’re in such a stupor that anything will make you jumpy—you’re just grateful that something, anything, is finally happening. If you’re not already excited by the seventies music, clothes and filmmaking techniques, the ending will seem somewhat anticlimactic. For specific genre lovers only.