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A line or two about why House of the Devil is worth a blind-buy?

Domino has a soft spot for retro-horror

That's one line. About someone else's tastes.

Isn't a Domino endorsement not enough for you?

Basically, I'm asking for Domino to say something to convince me to blind buy it.

denti alligator wrote:Basically, I'm asking for Domino to say something to convince me to blind buy it.

Well, I was going to talk more about it when the Horror List Project started up, but it's an immensely intelligent and well-made horror film that understands how cinematic suspense works without ever once devolving into period fetishization, pandering, or a false sense of superiority to the material

I second "House Of The Devil". Besides the camerawork in the ending, you would easily believe this was made in the 1980s if nobody told you otherwise. Although the real fan would have gone for the DVD/VHS combo pack... (out of print)

manicsounds wrote:Although the real fan would have gone for the DVD/VHS combo pack... (out of print)

I heard the VHS featured a widescreen transfer. This is a rare instance where I say they should have included a pan-and-scan transfer (on the VHS only) just to make it more true to the period.

House of the Devil is horror for grown ups and very good indeed: I caught it earlier this year and it was one of the most pleasant surprises I had in some time. Can't wait to see Ti West's next pic, The Innkeepers.

Finch wrote:House of the Devil is horror for grown ups and very good indeed: I caught it earlier this year and it was one of the most pleasant surprises I had in some time. Can't wait to see Ti West's next pic, The Innkeepers.

Enjoyed House of the Devil, but The Innkeepers was awful...

I'll recommend House of the Devil too, though the denouement in no way lives up to what went before (basically because it has to go into 'showing, explaining and twisting' mode like every other horror movie). Before that, it's very smartly (and slowly) paced and well executed. Even though there are a lot of superficial retro signifiers in there, it really doesn't owe a lot to 80s horror.

zedz puts it nicely. What I like about those 1980s signifiers is that Ti West doesn't bring too much attention to them, so the movie doesn't feel self-consciously retro. It's a slow burn too, so that heightens the tension, even if the resolution is rather conventional. The atmosphere is just right that I've made it a new staple in my Halloween season viewings.

htshell wrote:Enjoyed House of the Devil, but The Innkeepers was awful...

I could not disagree more with the latter half of this post if I tried. I had a great time with The Innkeepers: great acting across the board from Pat Healy (who gets many of the best lines - "Pana-suckass", indeed), Kelly McGillis and the adorable Sara Paxton, a truly hair-raising third act (even more so than House Of The Devil, which I also loved), and a real sense of mourning rare in horror cinema.

Damn, this is one fine film! Very impressive, indeed. Thanks for the recommendation. No regrets on the blind buy at all.

Recently watched the 2009 horror flick The House of the Devil for the first time, and was extremely impressed by this flick. I'm a big horror movie fan from way back, and the retro '70's/'80's tone, the storyline, and all of the actors worked perfectly. Very archetypal horror movie from that era -

Spoiler

i.e. the girl in the seemingly empty house hearing suspicious noises, the creepy old guy & his even creepier wife, the old demon lady, the horrific ritual at the end, etc.

In fact, if I hadn't known better, I would have thought this film was from the '70's or early '80's; the beginning with the freeze-framed images, the color, lighting, etc. were all identical to movies from this era. The film reminded me a lot of older flicks like The Last House on the Left (Wes Craven), Let's Scare Jessica to Death, The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, etc.

It was also a brilliant move to cast actors/actresses from '80's genre films: Mary Woronov starred in Eating Raoul & had a cameo in The Night of the Comet, Tom Noonan played the the Tooth Fairy in Manhunter, & Dee Wallace was the mom in E.T. - she was also in one episode of the underrated '80's Twilight Zone TV series...