We’re heading back to 2009 (or is it 1983?) for Ti West’s “The House of the Devil”.
A film which gives us the do’s and don’t’s of babysitting: DO bring a friend along to ensure the employers aren’t weirdos, DON’T then ignore that friend who has spotted every red flag in the situation; DO order pizza that the employers have generously left money for, DON’T then stick on your walkman really loud so you couldn’t hear the doorbell, dance on the furniture, generally run amok and break things; DO accept $400 for a night’s work, DON’T accept $400 for a night’s work from Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov who are both, clearly, scary as all fuck.
Before the success of his “X” trilogy brought Ti West’s brand of horror to the attention of a much wider audience, he was already acclaimed in genre circles for a series of outstanding films, of which “The House of the Devil” is a fantastic example. Not only does the film evoke its 1983 setting through a period-truthful aesthetic (not the absurd nostalgia of everyone in neon headbands and ET T-shirts, solving Rubiks Cubes) it also achieves it through the visual language and filmmaking techniques as well. With a superb central performance from Jocelin Donahue, who looks like she could have stepped straight out of the original “Black Christmas”, and a slow burn tension that ratchets up to a manic and visceral last 15 minutes, “The House of the Devil” is both an echo of the past, and a thoroughly modern take on it as well.
Watch (or re-watch) to avoid spoilers and join us.
