#14 - THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL - Horror Countdown to Halloween

#14 – THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL (2009)

Dir. Ti West

The house of the devil is exactly where you think it would be, in a wooded area in the middle of nowhere near a cemetery. Scared yet? I sure am! In 2009 Ti West wrote and directed the film The House of the Devil. It features the lovely Jocelin Donahue as Samatha; Samantha is a sophomore in college and is sick and tired of living in the dorms. She finds a great new place and is able to talk her way out of paying the deposit. However, she has to come up with the first month’s rent in only four days. While walking across campus, Sam finds a flyer that reads, “Baby Sitter Wanted”. The “S” was scrawled with the dollar sign. Sam thinks this is a great opportunity to earn some cash so she takes the phone number and calls about the job. After some run around and crappy pizza she is finally asked to babysit for Mr. and Mrs. Ulman; so she heads to the outskirts of town...to the house of the devil.  

While Mr. Ulman definitely sounds creepy over the phone and when we finally meet him he looks creepy, it’s not until about halfway through the film we start to see some horror. And it starts with a bang (pun intended but only if you've seen the film). Things begin to get creepy when Mr. Ulman tells Sam she is there to babysit his mother, not a child. Sam is hesitant but after some negotiation she decides she’ll take the job as she needs the money and the way the job’s described she won’t have to do much, as Mr. Ulman’s mother is self sufficient. Plus it’s 8 times the original price he would have paid a normal babysitter. Mr. and Mrs. Ulman head out to wherever they are going and Sam is left to her own devices.  

Sam, seemingly left alone in a giant house because who knows where Mr. Ulman’s mother even is, puts on her headphones and begins wandering around. She pretty much scours the house in ultimate 80s montage form. After her search, she starts to hear sounds as if someone is there with her. Could it be the murderous pizza guy? Maybe it’s just the mother? At this point we don’t know and because of the way Ti West set the film up things are starting to get creepy. Sam has a giant kitchen knife and the suspense is through the roof.

While there are some serious plot points that happen after that, the horror aspect of the movie really stands out on the suspense and the build up to it. Ti West crafts a story that if anyone else made it would be as slow as watching grass grow. But with Donahue as the lead and Ti West giving direction the “slow” portions of the film are entertaining and are superbly used to build to the suspense we feel near the climax. Once we hit the climax of the film we are invested in Sam and are now rooting for her to survive this ordeal that has her in, what appears to be, some sort of cult sacrifice. There are some great twists to this film and it deserves its spot at number 14 on the Dark of the Matinee Horror Countdown to Halloween. 


-Brett O. Walker