Written And Directed by Ti West
Samantha: "This one night changes everything for me."
Having completed To West's X trilogy recently, I went back somewhat earlier into his career and found this movie. If you've seen a certain episode of Inside No. 9, then this movie would be rather familiar to you.
You've got a young woman named Samantha Hughes (Jocelin Donahue). She's a college student who has recently managed to find herself somewhere to live but she's struggling to make ends meets. So far, so familiar. Then an opportunity presented itself.
The opportunity being a phone number on a flyer which Samantha rang at the nearest phone box. At the end of the line was a mystery man named Mr Ulman (Tom Noonan), who had a job offer for Samantha. After some initial crossed wired, Samantha accepted the babysitting gig but her best friend, Megan (Greta Gerwig) voiced concerns about Samantha's new job.
Samantha really should've listened to Megan. Not only was the Ulman residence in the middle of nowhere but Mr Ulman and his wife (Mary Woronov) were obviously creepy. Not to mention the fact that they were exactly truthful about the fact there wasn't a child but Mother (Danielle Noe) to babysit instead.
Had Samantha been smart, she would've left with Megan and had the latter also been smart, she wouldn't have gotten killed by that other guy (A.J. Bowen). Of course, a movie set in the middle of nowhere with a creepy family was going to have some bad stuff happen.
Yes, with the title of this movie, we got some old fashioned devil worshipping with poor Samantha being terrorised by the Ulman clan and barely getting out of the house alive. There's a decent level of creepiness when the Ulmans plan for Samantha was made clear and the end scene proved that they were successful too.
- Lena Dunham voiced the 911 operator while Ti West also briefly appeared as a teacher.
- Some of the behind the scenes antics that happened with cast and crew for this movie would inspire Ti West's next one, The Innkeepers.
- Standout music: The Fixx's One Thing Leads To Another and Greg Kihn Band's The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em).
- Chronology: 1983 Connecticut for the duration of the movie and during a full lunar eclipse.
As a movie taking on the topic of Satanic cults, there's a fair bit to enjoy with The House Of The Devil. The scares and gore are nicely spaced out with some really creepy moments and you've got a sympathetic lead character. For one of his earlier movies, Ti West did well here.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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