House of the Devil

2009
Director: Ti West
Cast: Jocelin Donahue, Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov

Plot: 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.

Combining Babysitters and Satanists
by C. True

Instead of 70's horror throwback, House of the Devil changes it up with...70's horror throwback set in the 80's. I'm a big sucker for directors striving for the cinematography and stylized look of the 70's, with Rob Zombie's The Devil's Rejects the most shining example (though the bizarre Return to Sleepaway Camp also went for broke establishing the 70's cinema look and feel). Needless to say when the credits began to role for House of the Devil and the freeze framing began I was squirming in my seat with excitement. Samantha is our quintessential beautiful college student who really needs some cash and takes a babysitting job. Her job happens to be WAY out in the middle of nowhere, and the husband and wife seem a little unusual. Like satanically unusual. Tom Noonan gives a great performance as the husband, with an understated soft spoken creepiness that sets a great mood and had me hoping for greatness. He tells Samantha the babysitting job isn't for a child, but for his wife's elderly mother, and when Sam balks he ups the pay to $400. Obviously this should be a warning sign, but Sam really needs that money. After the husband and wife leave, the movie for all purposes just stops. There is literally about 30-40 minutes of Sam walking around the house alternatingly snooping and investigating strange noises. At ten minutes I was still engaged, at twenty I was hoping the action should start any minute but by the thirty minute mark I was annoyed. Once the action finally did start it looked great and was generally creepy but there was almost no story to follow. There is a lot of reference to the full lunar eclipse but the importance of this to the Satanist is never mentioned, we're just supposed to put together that an eclipse would be an opportune time for a satanic ritual. Presumably they impregnate Sam with Satan's spawn, giving her creepy visual hallucinations, but this isn't developed at all and the conclusion of the movie feels completely abrupt and asinine. SPOILER: Only 10 minutes after this Satanic ritual Sam is so convinced she's being possessed or impregnanted with Satan's spawn that she kills herself? REALLY?! Maybe she should have waited for a little more confirmation before ending it all, and maybe the idea of have Satan's child would have grown on her, after all Rosemary learned to love her little antichrist.

You just had to wonder watching this movie why there is 40 minutes of set up and no storyline explanation. Did the writer/director Ti West not have a story in mind before filming this? It sure doesn't feel like it and maybe we shouldn't be surprised from the person whose big claim to fame is Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever. House of the Devil had a good look and a fine idea for a plotline, but watching this movie is about as exciting as reading the plot summary.