Day 15 - The House of the Devil (2009)
Plaform:
Borrowed from Hoopla.
Quote:
“Are you the babysitter?”
Synopsis:
On the night of the eclipse of the full moon, college student Samantha, desperate for cash so she can move out of her dorm room and get away from her less than stellar roommate, takes a babysitting job with the wrong family.
Review:
This 80’s period piece directed by Ti West, who later go on to direct The Innkeepers (which I just recently reviewed, check it out here) and V/H/S, really shows West’s beginnings. There’s some great atmosphere in this one starting with the first act as they establish Samantha, her friend Megan, and her less than a useless roommate, Heather. This part of the film sets the stage for this being set in the ’80s, which really just helps with establishing the lack of technology and the isolation that Samantha will be in once she arrives at the titular House of the Devil. The introduction to our characters is well put together. Samantha is a financially struggling college student who can’t take living with her roommate, Heather who just spends the day sleeping with her boyfriend and sleeping until the early evening/night. Megan is Samantha’s best friend who goes above and beyond to help Samantha out. And then we have the wonderful Tom Noonan portraying the bizarre Mr. Ullman who hires Samantha for a babysitting job. Great stuff so far. Nothing spooky, or atmospheric just yet, but I’m enjoying the characters.
In act two though, things start to drag. Once Samantha arrives at the house for a job, this is where West starts to build the atmosphere. The house is old and creepy, and he fills in the moments of Samantha basically just waiting around with some really disturbing moments. These all happen with Samantha having no idea the situation she is in, which really gives the audience a sense of foreboding as we watch the dramatic irony play out before us. These are the moments when people might be tempted to start yelling at their screens for her to “GET OUT OF THE HOUSE GIRL! YOU ARE IN DANGER!” Unfortunately, there’s just not quite enough of this sort of action and we spend loooooooooooong stretch of just watching Samantha wander around the house, turn on the TV, turn off the TV, order pizza, dance to her walkman (while listening to some great 80’s music), break a vase, clean it up, explore the house some more, eat pizza, and then finally start exploring some weird sounds that ultimately lead her to the real threat and mystery of the movie as the eclipse begins.
FINALLY, in act three we really get into the horror full throttle, and I mean that. Things ramp up in the last half-hour of the movie and they don’t slow down till credits start rolling (in wonderful old school style, I might add). So where does this leave me?
As much as I wanted to like this one, and there’s plenty here to enjoy for sure, there’s just such a drag in the middle of the film. They tried to keep that part interesting by letting the audience see the things that Samantha is unaware of, but it just takes too long, and there’s not enough going on behind the closed doors to keep it interesting. But, you can really see where Ti West is going in his career with this. Having watched his later films before getting to this one, I can see how his style developed from what he did here. So, if you’re a Ti West fan and really want to see one of his early works, go ahead and watch it, but otherwise, I would say don’t bother. Go watch The Innkeepers which does a better job of pacing out the acts so that it doesn’t get too bogged down, or if you want more gore, go check out V/H/S/.
Hoopla Breakdown: Hoopla is a digital borrowing service that many Ohio Libraries offer that allows patrons to borrow digital books, audiobooks, graphic novels, single issues of comic books, movies, and episodes of TV shows. You are provided with a set number of borrows each month. The amount varies by the library system. There are some limits on how many borrows that branch allows across its patrons each day, so it's better to try to get your borrows in early the morning of than it is the night before you plan to use them. This can also be an issue if you are looking to check out a TV Series because you have to borrow each episode individually. However, unlike other services, the items are always available. There is no hold system, waiting for other patrons to return their material before you get the title, or waiting for it to be delivered to your local branch for pick up. If you can find it, you can borrow it. Other benefits to this program are that you can stream directly over your data connection or wi-fi, or if you are concerned about saving data, you can download the material for offline access. The Hoopla app also has a casting feature so you can stream the title from your device to a larger screen using devices like Chromecast.
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