In this House, the devil's in the details

Watching writer/director Ti West's new horror film The House of the Devil is like going back in time. By setting the story in the 1980s, West gets a chance to fill his film with the clichéd moments of that era, including hairstyles, clothing, and the portable cassette player. More importantly, he has set this story in a world without the now-ubiquitous cellular phone – making communication with the outside world almost impossible.

Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) doesn't know what is on the other side of the closed door in The House of the Devil. (Magnolia, 2009)

Directed by: Ti West
Written by: Ti West
Starring: Jocelin Donahue, Greta Gerwig, Tom Noonan and Dee Wallace

Rated

(for some bloody violence)
Running time: 95 min.

FilmGuru's Rating : 3 out of 10.

In this throwback to the Satanic cult scare tactics of the 1970s and '80s, The House of the Devil is a fairly tame "alone in the woods" kind of story. The story involves a young college student named Samantha (Jocelin Donahue), who decides to rent an apartment and must come up with some quick cash for her first month's rent.

Right away, we're questioning motive. Why rent? She's living on campus with a roommate (who seems to "entertain" quite a bit), but she's not being forced out. And who rents an apartment without the money to pay for it? She doesn't even have a job.

But Samantha is determined to make ends meet. She sees a flyer on campus requesting a babysitter and calls the number. After a few stops and starts, she is asked to come to the house that very night. And the job pays $100. With her friend Megan (Greta Gerwig) providing the transportation, she goes out to the creepy old house and meets with Mr. Ulman (Tom Noonan).

Mr. Ulman confesses that they don't need a babysitter for any children. They merely need someone to stay at home with his wife's mother. They are in the area for the once-in-a-lifetime lunar eclipse and don't want to leave grandma alone. All they ask is that Samantha not bother grandma, who prefers her privacy.

The plot suffers from the director's intent to build up the terror slowly, and it fails. Point of view is broken twice, leaving Samantha to we can see what is happening elsewhere. Rather than increase the horror, it throws the audience out of the story.

To West's credit, the trappings of the 1980s are not just eye candy in this film. The reliance on pay phones and answering machines is actually integral to the setup of the story. The fact that there is no instant communication – no cell phones, no Twitter, no Facebook – is important.

The House of the Devil appears to be homage to the early films of John Carpenter. It has the same plodding pacing as Halloween or The Fog. I love Carpenter's work, really. But I have trouble engaging these films because they move so slowly.

So, too, The House of the Devil moves at a frustratingly slow pace through much of the story. Even after the first victim meets a surprising demise, the story continues to amble through Sam's slow discovery of the house.

The problem is not that the film moves slowly. It's the fact that it moves slowly for no reason. The tension is not heightened to a moment of horror. It just keeps shuffling along, as if West couldn't figure out how to be scary. Watching the 6' 6" Noonan tower over Donahue is about as eerie as this film gets.

The film has a few moments that make it worth watching. Dee Wallace, a true '80s film icon, appears as the landlady at the beginning of the film. And, to my delight, there is even the requisite '80s dance montage to get things rocking when things get too dull.