The House of the Devil, 2009.
Directed by Ti West.
Starring Jocelin Donahue, Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov, AJ Bowen, Dee Wallace, Brenda Cooney, and Greta Gerwig.
SYNOPSIS:
A university student accepts a babysitting job that turns out not to be quite what was advertised.
Harking back to an era when these types of movies were dubbed ‘chillers’, The House of the Devil takes the slow build-up and tense atmospheres of movies such as The Amityville Horror and Rosemary’s Baby and then climaxes in a crescendo of Hammer-style violence reminiscent of a time when movies were designed to scare and shock without the excessive use of CGI melty faces and the overuse of jump scares.
Set around 1983, Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) is a student who is looking to move out of her university digs and get her own place. Hoping to come up with some rent money quickly she takes on a babysitting job for a strange couple called the Ulman’s, who live in a very big and spooky house out in the middle of nowhere. Samantha turns up at the house with her friend Megan (Greta Gerwig) for support, but Mr. Ulman (Tom Noonan) tells Samantha that she won’t be babysitting a child but rather looking after his elderly mother-in-law, whom he claims will be no problem and Samantha won’t know she’s there.
Not being very happy about it, Samantha refuses but Mr. Ulman, who refers a lot to the lunar eclipse that is happening that night, is desperate so he offers her more money. Samantha agrees, much to the annoyance of Megan, who leaves and says she’ll come back after midnight to pick Samantha up. After the Ulman’s’ leave Samantha spends her time investigating the massive house, listening to her personal cassette player and ordering pizza, although after hearing strange bumps and noises she phones Mr. Ulman on the number he left, but apparently the number doesn’t exist…
And then the movie really kicks in, but to say any more about what happens would ruin the whole experience. The House of the Devil is a proper slow-burner, and the middle section when Samantha is investigating the house does take up a lot of the running time, but it is this build-up of tension that makes the final act of the movie so effective. With its hat tipped towards classic Hammer and a big dose of 1970s horror – there are obvious nods towards The Exorcist and the aforementioned The Amityville Horror – this movie won’t suit anybody looking for a quick horror fix, but director Ti West has enough genre know-how to make it work and really show how terror can be effective when using a ‘less is more’ approach. In fact, if you didn’t know this was a movie from 2009 then you could be forgiven for thinking it really did come out in the early ’80s – someone missed a marketing trick there!
As it is now customary to say, this limited edition Blu-ray from Second Sight looks gorgeous and comes stacked with a host of extras which, to be honest, are more for the hardcore fan but there are very few stones left unturned thanks to new and archive interviews with director Ti West, actors Jocelin Donahue and AJ Bowen, plus several crew members who all have stories to tell. There are also archive making-of featurettes, deleted scenes, two audio commentaries that feature Ti West with various cast and crew, art cards, collector’s book and a rigid slipcase that features an amazing new artwork by Nick Charge.
So, chalk this one up as another definitive package from Second Sight, who are going from strength to strength with their recent catalogue of releases. The House of the Devil was one of the more notable horror movies from the 2000s, showcasing a then-new director who wasn’t afraid to take a risk by making a spooky and atmospheric throwback horror movie amongst the deluge of violent torture porn and remakes of established IPs that were popular at the time, and in 2025 it still stands up, not only as a fantastic horror movie but also as Ti West’s signature piece.
West’s recent X trilogy showcased his knack for taking something already familiar and trying a fresh approach with it, but those movies play out in a very different way to this one, the tone of which is very much a tribute to what has gone before without any gimmicks or overt messages. If you want as pure a horror movie as has been made in the 21st century, then The House of the Devil is up there as one of the best examples.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
