Recent Release Reviewed: The House of the Devil

The House of the Devil
Starring: Jocelin Donahue, Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov, Greta Gerwig
Written and directed by: Ti West

"Are you not the babysitter?"

1980s. A title card explains that during the 1980s over 70% of Americans believed in the existence of abusive Satanic cults. College student Samatha (Donahue) needs cash, fast. She's just found her dream apartment, but has to raise the deposit before the weekend. Desperate, she finds a flyer advertising a babysitting job for Mr. Ullman (Noonan). Mr. Ullman sounds creepy on the phone, but he's willing to pay her well for a single night's work. When she and her friend Megan go up to their huge house in the middle of nowhere, Ullman reveals that he wasn't entirely truthful. Megan thinks they should leave, but Samantha decides to take the job anyway...

The House of the Devil is a love-letter to films from the 1970s and 1980s. From the poster to the soundtrack, from the "based on true unexplained events" premise to the clothes and colour palette, everything is beautifully reminiscent of a past era of horror film-making. It's also really rather good. The last time a film was promoted in a similar fashion we got the underwhelming Grindhouse, with it's great trailers and posters but disappointing substance (although I do like Planet Terror). The House of the Devil is a different animal. For those expecting an exploitation film due to the poster and the tagline, that's part of the joke. Spooky films like Halloween and Rosemary's Baby seem to be the touchstones here. A big clue with regards to tone should be the presence of Larry Fessenden as producer, who wrote and directed low-key horror films Wendigo and The Last Winter.

Ti West has become the next big horror director thanks to this film, and based on the evidence presented here, it's a deserved title. His first film, The Roost, wasn't great but was well-intentioned and boasted a great Tom Noonan cameo, and from all accounts Cabin Fever 2 is awful, but West has disowned it as a product of studio meddling. Here, he shows a very impressive handling of pace and tension, as well as proving adept at building menace.

Jocelin Donahue is a great discovery as Samantha. Apart from looking the part, she carries the film with a believable performance as her growing apprehension leads to terror. Mary Woronov is appropriately creepy as Mrs. Ullman, who makes odd references to the Ullman family history, and Greta Gerwig (who's been getting raves for Greenberg) makes for a excellently sarky and funny best friend. There's also a nice cameo from Dee Wallace (formerly Dee Wallace Stone) as "The Landlady".

The real star of the film, however, is Tom Noonan as Mr. Ullman. It's hard to think of another actor who can make creepy so sympathetic. With another actor, Mr. Ullman's dialogue would become typical "horror movie villain" dialogue. But with Noonan, there's always the possibility in the back of the viewer's mind that Ullman is geniuinely well-intentioned but keeps making a bad choice of words. "Oh, thank goodness. You're saving me. And I promise to make this as painless for you as possible." Of course, at the front of our minds is the thought that Ullman is up to no good. But his soft voice is so wonderfully at odds with his imposing height, dark suit and cane.

The House of the Devil goes at it's own pace. No suspicions are confirmed or dispelled until quite late into the film. We keep waiting for something to happen, which makes the sudden bursts of action really very shocking. An impatient viewer would call the film boring, but if you let yourself be immersed in the story and the atmosphere, The House of the Devil is one of the most rewarding horror films I've seen in a long time. And it is all about the atmosphere. This should appeal to horror fans, as well as those not usually drawn to the genre. It's a slow build rather than a gory blood-fest. And Tom Noonan is just excellent.

9/10