The House of the Devil

The House of the Devil
Theatrical release poster, done in the style of a film poster from the 1980s. Design: © Neil Kellerhouse, Kellerhouse, Inc. All rights reserved. kellerhouse.com
Directed by	Ti West
Produced by	Josh Braun Derek Curl Roger Kass Peter Phok
Written by	Ti West
Starring	Jocelin Donahue Tom Noonan Mary Woronov Greta Gerwig Dee Wallace
Music by	Jeff Grace
Cinematography	Eliot Rockett
Editing by	Ti West
Studio	Dark Sky Films Glass Eye Pix
Release date(s)	October 30, 2009 (2009-10-30)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$101,215

The House of the Devil is a 2009 horror film written, directed, and edited by Ti West, starring Jocelin Donahue, Tom Noonan, and Mary Woronov. It combines elements of both the slasher film and haunted house subgenres while using the "satanic panic" of the 1980s as a central plot element. The film attempts to recreate the 1970s and 1980s style of horror films, using filming techniques and technology similar to those used in that era.

The film's opening text claims that it is based upon true events, a technique used in horror films of the late 1970s and early 1980s such as The Amityville Horror and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (for these films, this was often later proven false or only partially true). However, what actual events it is purportedly based on are not mentioned in the film or in any press releases.

Plot

The film opens on a voyeuristic shot of college student Samantha Hughes (Jocelin Donahue) as she looks at an apartment. She cannot afford the security deposit, but the landlady agrees to accept the first month's rent instead. Samantha needs the apartment because her roommate is a slob who frequently has sex with her boyfriend all night long. When she sees a flyer advertising a babysitting job, Samantha calls the number and leaves a voice mail. The pay phone rings after she has hung up, and Mr. Ulman (Tom Noonan) arranges to pick her up outside the Student Affairs office. However, he never shows up.

Ulman leaves a message with Samantha's roommate, and when Samantha calls him back, he apologizes for standing her up and offers her $100 to babysit that night. Seeing the money as the only way to afford her first month's rent, Samantha agrees, and her friend Megan (Greta Gerwig) drives her to the house which is in the country. Megan is very skeptical, and begs Samantha to let her stay with her. When they get to the house, Ulman is very evasive when Megan asks him basic questions about who he is. He mentions the evening's lunar eclipse and how the town is the best place on Earth to see it. Eventually, he confesses that there is no child to babysit, only his mother. He agrees to pay Samantha $400, stressing that it was very important to have a sitter for the night.

Megan is furious with Samantha for agreeing to stay. She does not trust Ulman, especially once he admitted to lying. As she drives away, she is so flustered that she pulls over to light a cigarette. A man (A. J. Bowen) appears out of nowhere to offer her a light, visibly frightening her. After she lights up, she asks where he came from. He asks, "You're not the babysitter?" Then, he shoots her in the head, picking the lit cigarette from her fingers and finishing it.

Back at the house, Ulman promises that his mother is independent enough that Samantha might never even see her, and he mentions twice that there is a phone number on the fridge for a pizza place. Ulman leaves with his wife (Mary Woronov). Alone, Samantha spends some time going through the many rooms of the house. She decides not to enter one of the rooms, which is shown to have three dead bodies inside. She orders a pizza and plays pool. Eventually, she finds old photographs of the house showing a different family posing in front of it. The discovery unsettles her so much that when the pizza arrives, she throws the money at the delivery man and slams the door. The delivery man is the same stranger who killed Megan.

After a few bites of the pizza, she throws it out and tries to wash the taste out of her mouth. At the sink, she hears someone else running a tap somewhere in the house. She goes upstairs to investigate, ending up in the attic, where she becomes frightened by the sounds of someone behind a door. The pizza has been drugged, and Samantha passes out. When she wakes up, she is tied to a satanic altar in the basement. The Ulmans and the stranger are dressed in hooded cloaks, as well as a deformed priestess. The priestess draws a pentagram on Samantha's belly with blood and then pours more blood down her mouth. Samantha manages to free herself, stabbing Mr. Ulman and poking the stranger in the eye. She runs up stairs and trips over Megan's body in the kitchen. The stranger chases her up to the second story of the house where he shoots her in the arm. As he prepares to finish her off, she slashes his throat and flees into the attic. Mrs. Ulman appears devastated by the death of the man, and enters the attic. She tells that Samantha that it is too late to do anything, threatening that "it will work in spite of you". Samantha stabs her in the back as she prays for help.

Samantha dials 911, but when the operator answers, she has another, more powerful hallucination of the demonic looking priestess. Terrified, Samantha flees the house, followed by Mr. Ulman who is bleeding profusely. When he catches up to her, she points the gun at him, and he encourages her to shoot him. He explains that he is simply a messenger for someone else. He asks Samantha to listen to the voices in her head and realize that there is no way to fight them. Samantha shoots herself instead.

The film ends in a hospital room, where Samantha is recovering. A nurse tends to her and says, "Don't worry, you're gonna be just fine." Then, laying a hand on Samantha's stomach, she adds, "Both of you."

Cast

• Jocelin Donahue as Samantha Hughes
• Tom Noonan as Mr. Ulman
• Mary Woronov as Mrs. Ulman
• Greta Gerwig as Megan
• A. J. Bowen as Victor Ulman
• Dee Wallace as Landlady

Production

The film was shot in Connecticut, USA. Taking place in the 1980s, the film was made with 16mm film, giving it a retro stylistic look that matched the decade. Similarly, some aspects of the culture of the 1980s (i.e. feathered hair, Samantha's 1980 Sony Walkman, The Fixx's 1983 song "One Thing Leads to Another", and the Volvo 240 series sedan) are seen in the film as signifiers of the decade. The cinematography of the film also reflects the methods used by directors of the time. For instance, West often has the camera zoom in on characters (rather than dolly in as is now common in film), a technique that was often used in horror films of the 1970s and continued to be used into the 1980s. Other stylistic signifiers include opening credits (which became less common in films in the decades after the 1980s) in yellow font accompanied by freeze-frames and the closing credits being played over a still image of the final scene.

Release

The United States premiere was at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on April 25. It was made available through video on demand on October 1, 2009. The film was given a limited theatrical release in the United States on October 30, 2009. The DVD and Blu-Ray of the film were released on February 2, 2010. A promotional copy of the film was released on VHS in a clamshell box like the ones that many early VHS films of the 1980s came in.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for The House of the Devil was released in November 2009 as a Double Feature with the score of I Can See You, both by avant-garde composer Jeff Grace.

1. Opening (1.10)
2. Family Photos (2.24)
3. The View Upstairs (1.45)
4. Original Inhabitants (3.05)
5. Meeting Mr. Ulman (1.12)
6. Keep the Change (1.12)
7. Footsteps (1.27)
8. Mother (3.07)
9. Chalice (0.51)
10. On the Run (3.45)
11. Lights Out (3.04)
12. He's Calling You (1.50)
13. The House of the Devil (5.49)
14. Mrs. Ulman (2.04)

Tracks from 15 to 26 comprise the soundtrack for I Can See You.

Reception

The film has been met with mostly positive reviews, scoring 86% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 83 reviews; the site's reviews' consensus is "Though its underlying themes are familiar, House of the Devil effectively sheds the loud and gory cliches of contemporary horror to deliver a tense, slowly building throwback to the fright flicks of decades past." It has also received an overall score of 73 on Metacritic based on 12 reviews, indicating "Generally favorable reviews." Roger Ebert gave it 3 out of 4 stars, complimenting it as being "an introduction for some audience members to the Hitchcockian definition of suspense." Kevin Sommerfield from Slasher Studios gave the film four out of four stars commenting that the film is "not just a nostalgia piece for director Ti West, one of the best horror directors working today, this is how horror movies SHOULD be made". Oliver Smith of 7films said "as the great horror films of past days, such as The Omen or Rosemary’s Baby, The House of the Devil is a slow-burning horror film, taking its time to introduce the characters".

The film won a few awards shortly after its release. It won the 2009 Birmingham Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival award for Best Feature Film. At the 2009 Screamfest it won festival trophies for Best Actress (Jocelin Donahue) and Best Score (Jeff Grace).

External links

• Official website
• The House of the Devil at the Internet Movie Database
• The House of the Devil at AllRovi
• The House of the Devil at Rotten Tomatoes
• Spout interview with director Ti West
• Interview with Ti West about The House of The Devil at ion magazine