Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsFor Scary Movie Lovers, Not Just for Witchcraft Lovers
Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2019
This review is for the Blu-Ray edition of 'The House of the Devil' released by Dark Sky Films in 2009.
This review is SPOILER FREE.
PLOT/SUMMARY: A college student, Samantha, is looking for her own apartment so she can have some privacy from her slob of a roommate. She answers an ad and is accepted as a tenant. The problem is that she doesn't have the money she needs. She goes looking for a job to make some quick cash. She finds a posted ad for someone looking for a babysitter. The prospective employer behaves a bit odd and ultimately she finds out that the job is not exactly what it was represented to be. Samantha has to decide if it's worth the money she is being paid to accept the job.
COMMENTS/CONCLUSIONS:
I don't easily hand out 5 star ratings for movies. Especially when movies have more than one or two flaws, which most movies do. I will still rate a movie with a sub par plot higher if there is some aspect of the movie that I love. A lot of nice extra's will also do the trick. In this case, I'm giving the movie 5 stars because it was entertaining. I didn't love the ending, but that's OK. I can look past the ending if everything else was good up until that point. This movie is genuinely creepy and I like the way the tension slowly builds. I also like that this movie doesn't follow the typical rules of horror movies for teens. Somebody who goes down, stays down. Hopefully you won't consider that statement a spoiler!
I am a fan of lesser known science fiction and horror films. This movie fills the bill as far as I'm concerned. Although, I like horror, I'm not a huge fan of witchcraft. I like movies that are more grounded in reality. Of course, people who are into witchcraft would tell you that witchcraft is very much grounded in reality. Anyway, this movie isn't loaded with unexplainable stuff. There is just a little of that, which is fine by me. The bottom line with this movie as far as I'm concerned is that it is very good. I like the 80's look and feel of the movie. This was done deliberately by the director, Ti West. If I had to give on honest score for the plot, it would probably be about a 7.5/10 and if it had a better ending I'd have given it an 8.5/10. Since this site starts with a curve of 2 points or 1 star, that makes this a 4 1/2 to 5 star movie.
I thought that there were a few things in this movie that look as if they were the victims of script changes. Unfortunately, I am going to keep those things to myself since I decided to keep this review 'spoiler free'.
This movie features some actors of note. Dee Wallace is probably most famous for 'E.T.' and 'The Howling' but she has starred in some other sci-fi/horror classics as well. I was surprised to see her for such a short period of time in what is more or less a minor role. Mary Woronov has starred in quite a few cult classics. For me, those include Death Race 2000, Eating Raoul' and 'Night of the Comet'. But there are a bunch of others too. Tom Noonan has been around since the early 80's and he has been in quite a few cult classics as well.
ARE THERE ANY OTHER FILMS BY THE DIRECTOR WORTH WATCHING?: Ti West has made several horror films. I have only seen one other, 'The Innkeepers' and I think that it is pretty good. That one is a ghost story as opposed to witchcraft. I would recommend that movie if you like supernatural mysteries.
![The House of the Devil [Blu-ray]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51E6Jhsx8kL._AC_US60_SCLZZZZZZZ__.jpg)
