|
Baby sitter Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) prepares for the worst in the self-descriptive thriller “The House of the Devil.” |
Samantha, the cute college student, takes a baby-sitting job at a creepy old Victorian house in the boonies, and when she arrives, discovers the weird couple living there doesn’t even have a baby.
Run, Samantha!
The lady of the house tells Samantha she’s just been checking her furs in the basement. But Sam finds the furs in a closet on the second floor.
Run, Samantha! Run!
In an upstairs bathroom, Sam discovers huge chunks of lopped-off hair in a drain.
Samantha, get your tushie outta that house and run!
Part of the fun of watching “The House of the Devil” comes from noticing the signs screaming “Danger!” to a well-paid baby sitter who doesn’t really want to see them.
The title “The House of the Devil” pretty much tells you all you need to know about this low-budget, delayed-fuse horror film by writer/director/editor Ti West, who does a reasonably good job of recreating the look and feel of vintage terror tales from the 1980s, when this movie is set.
This, although ’80s horror was dominated by cheap mad slasher epics inspired by “Friday the 13th” rather than diabolic Satanist thrillers that hailed mostly from the 1970s. (1968’s “Rosemary’s Baby” leads the pack, which includes “Daughters of Satan,” “Race With the Devil,” “The Omen,” plus others.) (Read more…)