I absolutely love being able to give credibility to the indie-horror scene since a great deal of their movies have genuinely interesting characters, very good writing, an interesting concept/execution, and good acting, but The House of the Devil bored me to the point that I almost started cheering for Satan so something suspenseful, dramatic, comedic, scary, thrilling, interesting, or relevant would happen. Instead, this hour and a half long movie could have had some characters cut as well as its length since there were stretches of time where nothing consisting of any one of the seven elements I mentioned before was present.
A sophomore in college (Samantha) is getting an apartment so (I guess) she doesn't have to live with her messy, slutty, coke-snorting roommate any more. The down payment is $300 in five days, so when Sam sees a flyer for a "BABY$ITTER," she calls the number. However, when she gets to the house out in the middle of nowhere, the man tells her that he lied. She won't be taking care of a child, but there is his wife's mother upstairs, but Sam may or may not even see her, so she's just there for four hours in case the mother needs her. He also mentions that she takes pride in her isolation so to not bother her. He agrees to pay her $400 for one night and mentions several times that she should order a pizza from the number on the fridge. Of course, she accepts, sends her friend with the only means of transportation away, and orders a pizza.
Cue the random sounds in the house that are never explained, the vile-tasting candy in the living room, and the uninvestigated smell of dead bodies coming from the basement. Let me explain one of the stretches where I started to space out: Sam orders a pizza and starts waiting for it to come. She was getting bored because there's nothing interesting on the one single news channel she watches, so after looking through the entire house (the places she looks are not used or explored later), she plays her walkman and dances through the house for about five minutes until she slams her ass into a table and breaks a vase. She then goes downstairs and gets a dustpan to clean up the broken vase. She hears a strange noise and goes upstairs. The buzzer rings really loudly to make you jump, and then the pizza comes. She eats a slice.
Regardless of how boring the movie was, I did like the fact that it was placed in the time period (late 70s, early 80s) without beating the viewer over the head with it. The costuming, camera equipment, score, title cards, and other things (pay phone, phone with chord, etc) were all effective and great, but in my opinion, there was no suspense, build-up, or effective characters. Please read no more if you wish to see the film. There are spoilers for the ending for the rest of the review.
I love it when (horror) movies try not to explain too much, but this one explained the wrong things. It was trying to go for an ending that could be interpreted different ways (either the ritual worked and was real or it didn't and wasn't), but in trying that, I felt that it abandoned several supernatural elements in the realm of suspense/thrills while Samantha was left in the house, given the title and plotline. Instead, in trying to remain middle of the line, I thought it became somewhat predictable and didn't really go anywhere.
For instance, in the scene where the friend was shot, I was thrust into the movie, but in hindsight, I thought that that ruined a possibility for suspense. I would have been more interested in the film and stayed thrust into it for a longer period if the friend met the creepy guy and there was some kind of chemistry. Perhaps they left for a drink, see the eclipse...anything, so when Sam called the friend's phone, the viewer would think she was out with the guy and not shot in the face. Of course, when the creepy guy delivers the pizza, some mystery would be present as to what has happened to the friend.
That's another thing, there wasn't much of a mystery present. The man is trying to find a specific girl to get knocked up by Satan, so he posts a false babysitting ad. Why not a housesitting ad? Then, he might get more positive responses from girls he likes. After all, why would he need a babysitter for an elderly woman whom he mentions likes her privacy and probably won't even be seen during the night? Do any of these thoughts ever cross the heroine's mind? I guess they weren't convenient to the storyline.
Back to the mystery. There's obviously something sinister happening in the house (yes, dramatic irony is used when the room is shown with the giant bethogram and three dead bodies on it), but we knew what happened to the friend, know that theyre out doing some Satanic things/waiting for Sam to get poisoned/preparing for the lunar eclipse. What's left? Only the amount of time until Sam discovers all that. Can that suspense be stretched in about 40 minutes? 20 minutes?
What's necessary for a scene to work is that there must be some kind of conflict present, and there really wasn't much for stretches of time in the film. Sam was in a conflict with boredom and the possibility of a noise that turned out to be...well...not really much of anything important. As a matter of fact, I think the movie forgot what was causing the noises after they happened because absolutely no explanation was present. Actually, I only heard maybe one or two noises such as something hitting a pipe. It was implied that that was something from the basement, but why was that necessary? And if the noise was obviously something with the plumbing, why did she go upstairs? Why did Sam have to break the vase? Why did she get dinner around 9:00 or 9:30 at night? I felt that the film wasn't trying to build an atmosphere but instead simply fill time.
My "review" of this movie can be easily thrown away because I'm sure you didn't like some or all of the horror films I liked (Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, Carrie, The Descent, Bug, The Mist, Paranormal Activity, Scream 1 and 2 (even though they're parodies), Drag Me to Hell (a horror/comedy but still fun and had interesting characters), Let the Right One In, The Shining, and many more), but I felt very disappointed by this film and thought it was a missed opportunity. It wasn't a failure, but I guess I was expecting something else. Perhaps next time I'll watch a horror movie in which I haven't met anyone who inadvertantly reinacted practically the entire middle portion while they were bored and alone at home.
Rated R for some bloody violence.
Buy the movie here.
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