The House of the Devil - Tribeca Movie Review

By Ron Wilkinson May 14, 2009, 10:18 GMT

Not a bad venture into the “girl meets devil” genre but a few rock songs short of a hit.

Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) is all alone.  She is a starving student with an obnoxious roommate who makes noisy love with a dumb boyfriend.  Plus Samantha can’t find a job anywhere which is a special problem because she just rented a nice new apartment from a kindly woman who noticed how nice Samantha is.  Well that won’t last for long, my horror aficionados, because Samantha is going to take a baby sitting job in “The House of the Devil.”  After she is done with that job will be never be same; nor will you.

OK maybe that is a slight exaggeration.  Emerging director Ti West’s new darkly sensuous dance with the devil is not the scariest film ever made, nor the most imaginative, but Ms. Donahue does play a pretty good clean and pure college co-ed at least before she takes that job for the Ulmans.  But before we get to the Ulmans there is Samantha’s best friend Megan (Greta Gerwig).  Megan has a small but important part in the film; she urges Samantha not to take the job after Mr. Ulman lies to Samantha.  This is important because it foreshadows the dreadful fate that awaits pure college virgins when they take baby-sitting jobs in houses of the devil.  Lucky for us, they take the jobs anyway.

The venerable Mr. Ulman is played by veteran actor Tom Noonan (shared Oscar for “Synecdoche, New York”--2008) and the little lady Mrs. Ulman is played by equally seasoned Mary Woronov.  They are in their late 50s, more or less, and made to look like they are closer to their 150s.  With credit to Noonan, Mr. Ulman does not look like the kind of guy you would buy a newspaper from, let alone go to his deserted creaky house in the middle of nowhere.  It didn’t help that he lied in the ad and said it was a baby sitting job when actually it was going to be….. No, no spoilers here, you will have to go the film and see for yourself.

The baby sitting job is actually for Mr. Ulmans mother, but he couldn’t get sitters if he told them that so he told a little white lie.  What’s the big deal?  It’s not like the house is the North American center for devil worship and copulation or anything.  Beside Samantha and Megan had it coming.  Especially after Megan tore down all of the other advertisements for the fake baby sitting job on campus so Samantha was sure to get the job in crepuscular Mr. and Mrs. Dead-for-a-thousand year’s creaky shack in the middle of nowhere with homicidal assistants running all over the landscape with guns.

Nice use of stairs (thank you Mr. Hitchcock) and nice use of the mother in the house gimmick, although she doesn’t really exist.  Several very cool rock and roll songs pick things up now and then, but not as much as the film needs to be picked up.  Over all, it’s pretty slow until the end when things get exciting.

The film is a good combination of tried and true scary gimmicks.  The use of the devil worship robes with the black hoods makes you feel at home, reassures you that this is, indeed, a horror film.  The photography is almost entirely at night or in dark interior spaces benefitting the dark nature of the horror awaiting Samantha.  The day shots are few but are shot against a marvelous grey sky that foreshadows the hopelessness of poor Sam’s situation.  She is in a bad way and things are going to get worse and the bleakness of the atmosphere underscores her lack of options.  She has been chosen for this assignment and there is no playing hooky.

The acting and directing are barely good enough for the multi-plex and will be marginal even in that venue, but Noonan and Woronov inject enough creepiness to keep things going.  Although they only have a few minutes’ screen time they steal the show.  It appears the director is in charge of a sequel to “Cabin Fever” which is a good sign for him but this film is about one third the demented skin ripping bloodthirstiness of the original “Cabin Fever” classic.  He better be able to turn up the voltage in the CF sequel or suffer immense gibes from cult followers of the original.

If the film combined three more good rock songs with at least one new horror plot device it might get a passing grade.  But as it is overwhelming crowds are unlikely.

Directed and Written by: Ti West

Starring: Jocelin Donahue, Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov

Release: Tribeca FF—no scheduled release
MPAA: Not Rated
Runtime: 93 minutes
Country: UK
Language: English
Color: Color