No matter what the genre, there’s something wonderful about watching a filmmaker so absolutely certain of her methods, so attuned to generic conventions, so confident in his every shot and edit. Ti West has been making low-budget horror films for a couple years, and each was good (the very low-budget The Roost an effective sort-of-meta creature feature, the equally low-budget Trigger Man an even more idiosyncratic and utterly unnerving sniper film). But with House of the Devil, West pulls out his old video library of late-’70s/early-’80s horror films and doesn’t just wholly inhabit their tricks and tone, he recreates and exceeds their pleasures. Manna from horror-fan heaven.
Set in that time period, House gets all the details right: walkman and cheesy AOR rockpop songs, feathered hair, the elaborate teasing exploration of a big old small-town Edwardian home. College student (Jocelin Donahue) strapped for cash, takes against her best friend’s advice (Greta Gerwig) a babysitting gig with Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov. Shit, even *I* know never to take a babysitting gig with Tom Noonan (in full eccentric creep mode, and PERFECT).
You know, big scary house, babysitter — there’s a mathematical definitiveness to the movie’s finale, but West does pull at least one extremely effective trick on us viewers. Still, he’s interested not in ironic commentary or twisty reconception. The movie’s greatest pleasure is, for almost an hour, the slow nearly-eventless build-up of dread. The camera, the lighting, the cuts… the film is like a master-class in the development of suspense.
When things finally go gruesome, it’s the kind of hyper-red but relatively concise attention to violence that reminds me of Argento and his early-’80s acolytes here in the U.S.
I loved this film.
A creepy horror movie with Tom Noonan? This goes to the top of my list.
By the way, whatever happened to Noonan’s career as a director? Both What Happened…. and The Wife were interesting films…..
Noonan!
Michael’s right about Noonan’s films, particularly What Happened Was…. really worth tracking down.
I second Mike’s recommendation of this film. Almost “nothing” happens for the first 3/4 of this movie, yet it is tense and compelling. I wish there was a bit more of Noonan, but what’s there is creepy enough…and his “mother,” don’t get me started. very much an effective homage to the 1970s, both in subject matter and in style…and, thankfully, no spider-walking old people, no mirrors, no flashing effects, no children with black pupil-less eyes….the scariest element might be the plaid shirt and high-waisted jeans that our plucky heroine wears through the film.