The House of the Devil

The House of the Devil (2009)

Runtime: 95 minutes

Directed by: Ti West

Starring: Jocelin Donahue, Greta Gerwig, Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov

From: MPI Media Group

Here's a much-discussed horror movie from a few years ago that is still debated today. I hadn't seen any of director West's movies but those have been much debated too, especially considering many people have ripped his contributions to both V/H/S and The ABC's of Death, two horror anthologies that were released this year and have played the festival circuit and/or are available on demand. I knew what to expect from this film, so I decided to finally give it a go and watched it on Instant.

The plot: Samantha Hughes (Donahue) is a poor college student who needs some quick cash. She ends up calling about and getting a babysitting job. It is offered by an older couple who are rather off and just act and talk in a manner that is not quite right (Noonan, Woronov). The job is also not quite what it seems but she accept anyhow. Once they leave some strange things happen and Samantha has to try to deal with the situation.

I've heard throughout that this is a “slow burn” sort of thing that takes its time, and some people found such a style to be boring. This also is more the style of a movie from the 70's or 80's and it isn't flashy or neat like many horror movies of late have been. That idea is all well and good, but... while I say that doing something different from the slick edited way too much sort of horror flick you get these days is something I support, this thing is just... so... damn... boring. It's glacially slow, from the beginning to the end. You see throughout that shots are way too long; even her walking around her campus seems longer than it should be, as if the running time was padded out to make this feature-length. If this was a half hour short it would have been much better; the actual plot would have been sufficient for something 30 minutes long, not 95.

It takes forever for her to accept the job and then arrive there. After that, you get a LOT of boredom. Sure, there are some odd noises around the house but otherwise it's a whole lot of nothing. She walks around the house, orders pizza, dances around to The Fixx while listening to their most famous song on her Walkman (this is set in the early 80's) and that's pretty much it for at least a half hour. Finally, the final act kicks in and actual things happen... however, they are really stupid nonsensical things and the ending makes zero sense at all and it make me hate this total waste of time. Why so many people lost their minds and went bananas over this deathly dull sleep-including claptrap... I'll never comprehend. What was supposed to be a slow burn to the point that you're ready to wet your pants due to fear that I've heard and read from a plethora of reviews... it made me want to either shut it off or fall asleep. I haven't seen too many movies from the time period it was trying to emulate, but none of them were this damn boring and at least those built up suspense well or were entertaining or actually had events taking place. 

Don't listen to the majority, this is a total waste of time. The 80's songs you hear are cool and the performances by and large were at least fine, and it did seem like a movie from the early 80's. Otherwise... a total waste of time.

I'll be back Wednesday night.