|    Avg. user rating: 0 ratings The Rundown: Oct. 27, 20091) In Theaters: "The House of the Devil"
The
biggest movie opening up this weekend is the Michael Jackson concert-rehearsal
film "This Is It," but I have a different pick to recommend if you're looking to
squeeze one last set of screams out of the Halloween season. Opening in New... more
York, L.A. and Austin (but, thanks to the brave new world we live in, already
available on demand at a cable box near you), Ti West's "The House of the Devil"
isn't just a clever tribute to the look and feel of '80s horror films; it's
actually a nicely-tuned slow-burn carnival of scares that had me nervy and
pent-up even as I was giggling at West's acid-washed wardrobe choices and
old-school score. Set in the '80s, "The House of the Devil" stars Jocelin
Donahue as Sam, a college student in need of money for the first month's rent on
her new apartment; answering a flyer looking for a baby-sitter, she ends up in
the middle of nowhere at the home of a couple (Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov), who
haven't been entirely honest with her and a once-in-a-lifetime lunar eclipse
about to happen. ...
It's interesting that on the IMDB's message boards
for the film, a bit of a war has broken out, with some fans praising the film's
slowly-building atmospherics and detractors knocking its pacing and feel.
(Although, it's also worth noting that the anti-"House" camp's comments have a
lot more spelling errors and exclamation marks, which is always a give-away.
...) In an interview with Killer Film, writer-director
West summed up his frustrations with the "Saw"-style of in-your-slashed-face
modern horror moviemaking: "I think mainstream horror nowadays has become the
lowest common denominator. So, mostly what you're seeing is just people getting
killed, and that doesn't particularly interest me. I mean all that stuff in the
horror movies now is pretty much all about "How are they dying? How can we cut
this guy's head off?" That just never really factors into my brain when I'm
making movies. I like movies that take themselves seriously. When I made "The
House of the Devil" it's just about the character, this sort of situation, about
the style of the movie and it's really just about the contrast. We have kind of
like this psychedelic ending to the movie with this really strong contrast (to)
a really just mundane realism of the first half of the film. That's something
that I find very important ... contrast is what helps makes the art of horror
effective." And "House" is effective; if you, like I, grew up with '80s horror,
the style of the film will bring back nightmares ... but the slow,
pressure-cooker tension of the tale will bring up goosebumps. Close | |
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