Monday, March 22, 2010

House of the devil


House of the Devil is a recent film from director Ti West. A young college student has just moved into her first apartment and is trying to get enough money to cover her first months rent. She sees an advert for a babysitting job and calls the listed phone number. Turns out it is a couple that needs her to babysit on the night of a Lunar eclipse. She gets her best friend to drive her out to the house,and while she feels uneasy about taking the job. Her uneasiness is tempered by the father of the couple offering her $400,It seems they have no kid and just want her there to keep an eye on his wife's elderly mother. After the couple leaves she goes walking around the house and finds what seems to be a kid's room that has many current toys laying around. This causes her to get weirded out. Meanwhile while on her friend is driving home and stops in a local cemetery to rest and have a cig. While trying to light her cigarette she is startled by a scruffy looking man. He ask her if she is the one coming out to babysit,and when she says no. He shoots her point blank,and we get to see a nice blood and brain splatter scene. Back at the house,the young girl orders a pizza,while waiting she goes an plays a game of billiards. Finally there is a knock at the front door and it's the guy who killed her friend in the graveyard. She gives him a $20 and slams the door. Finally she sits down to eat and calm down. But after one slice she hears a strange sound upstairs and goes to investigate. But after she gets up to the third floor ,every thing gets all cloudy and she passes out. When she comes to she is in an all white dress and tied to the floor in the middle of a huge pentagram. It seems the parents and what I assume has to be their "child" are gonna sacrifice her. She manages to get one arm free and quickly gets herself free. She runs off but is confronted by the "pizza delivery" man. He shoots her in her right shoulder,but thinking quickly she slashes his throat with a knife she had managed to pick up in the kitchen. The two parents chase after her,but she manages to escape out of the house and runs down the long road. She makes it all the way to the graveyard and is confronted by the father,she uses the gun she got off pizza man and shoots herself in the head.Then we cut to a hospital room,where our heroine is laying in a bed almost completely covered with bandages. A nurse is attending to her and says "No worries you and your little one are gonna be OK." And then the credits roll. This film is one I have been hearing about for about the past 9 months all over the Internet. It is a throwback to the 80's horror films,but I also noticed a heavy 70's made for TV horror film vibe to it. It is a very very slow build,with nothing much happening until the 1 hour mark. But while in other films I would find this a major problem in this film it just works at building the tension. One thing that stood out to me is how grainy the picture was. I watched this on my decent sized LCD TV and the DVD is 16x9 anamorphic,so I assume it was supposed to look this grainy. The grain didn't really detract from the film,it actually made it feel more like something I would have rented and watched back in 1984 on the Beta max. The acting was all around pretty good. House of the Devil gets a B+.