West... has all at once crafted a film that beautifully reproduces the look and texture of a straight-to-video horror from the '80s, and filled it with the sort of nail-biting tension that works in any decade.
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09/09/09
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The House of the Devil (2009)
88
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:57
Fresh:50
Rotten:7
Average Rating:7.1/10
Consensus: Though its underlying themes are familiar, House of the Devil effectively sheds the loud and gory cliches of contemporary horror to deliver a tense, slowly building throwback to the fright flicks of decades past.
Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Synopsis: A coed struggling to pay her rent ends up taking the wrong part-time job in writer-director Ti West's old-school, 1980s-set horror flick THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL. Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) is a... [More]
Starring: Jocelin Donahue, Greta Gerwig, Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov
Director: Ti West
Reviews for The House of the Devil
There's a payoff in The House of the Devil, if you have the patience. Some of the scenes seem draggy, but the characters are complex, and their motivations are explained.
11/19/09
There is a lot about The House of the Devil to admire but West ultimately likes the slow burn a bit too much and it fizzles out.
11/13/09
It may not completely succeed as a horror film, though I would take its deliberately funky and low-key vibe over the hard-sell nonsense of "Paranormal Activity" any day of the week.
11/13/09
A first-rate chiller.
11/12/09
The cinematic equivalent of foreplay. It's all about building mood, teasing us, and, in between the lines, promising an eventual payoff.
11/12/09
Even the familiar tropes of The House of the Devil are familiar in the right way, like an old, bloodstained sweater.
11/12/09
The film may provide an introduction for some audience members to the Hitchcockian definition of suspense: It's the anticipation, not the happening, that's the fun.
11/12/09
Top CriticIf you like horror movies that actually have some artistic merit to them, this is definitely one of the more noteworthy pictures of the year.
11/07/09
The film is a perfectly pitched old-school horror homage to a '70s/'80s-era of cinema that should have been.
11/02/09
If you love a nerve-stretching build up to a seriously creepy payoff, you'll want to see for yourself.
11/02/09
Ti West knows how to set up his prey for the kill
11/02/09
...there is one scene early on with Mr. A.J. Bowen that is as creepy as anything you're going to get this summer.
11/02/09
...a virtual refutation of all of the conventions of contemporary horror that manages to be terrifying precisely because it refuses to give you that gratification until you've almost given up wanting it.
11/01/09
The House of the Devil could have certainly turned out stronger with a shorter buildup and a more drawn out climax, but who am I to argue? I haven't been this scared watching a horror film in years.
10/30/09
Those of us who remember that strange and marvelous era when the grindhouse gave way to VHS pajama parties are apt to see a kindred spirit at work here.
10/30/09
Part of the film's off-kilter surreality comes from its retro look, tone, cinematography, and even music.
10/30/09
The House of the Devil is not only set in the early '80s, but director Ti West chose to shoot and structure the film in a way so as to make it feel like it was made in the early '80s. In a way, this throwback style is reminiscent of what Quentin Ta
10/30/09
More concerned with stretching nail-biting suspense to the breaking point than finding new ways of making heads explode.
10/30/09
Although the payoff is creepy, it takes a little too long to arrive -- and when it does, it's about as worn-out as the movie's title.
10/30/09
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