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College is such a drag. You’ve found your dream apartment off-campus with a great landlady, but you need cash now or else you’re gonna lose it, so you answer an ad for a last-minute babysitter. Easy as pizza pie, right? Well turns out there’s no kids, just a creepy old mother who turns out to be a soul-sucking demon in need of your young body to carry the child of Satan – it’s an age-old story, or possibly just a regular Saturday night in the ’80s depending on which uptight parents’ group you happen to talk to. It’s “The House of the Devil”!
The “Satanic Panic” of the 80’s and early 90’s was a time of mass-hysteria, and the perfect setting for a horror movie, and Ti West dives right in hooves-first with The House of The Devil. Set in the 1980’s, it’s a love letter to the demonic films of yesteryear, complete with groovy synth soundtrack, feathered hair, and stylistic camera zooms that were done in 2009, but scream 1981. A creepy slow burn of a horror flick, it features a great cast not only genre favorites (Tom Noonan, Dee Wallace), but also a future academy award nominee (Greta Gerwig)!
Join Clay, and Amanda as they get into the finer points of wasteful eating habits, knob and tube wiring, unexpected face removal and one thing leading to another, incredibly long phone cords, creepy grandparents, when to not abandon your friend at a creepy house on a full moon in the middle of nowhere, and of course, questionable parenting.
The House of the Devil was an indie darling upon its release, praised for its retro style as well as its slow-burn build-up and wild climax, and seemed to signal Ti West as the next big horror filmmaking icon. After our coverage of The Innkeepers, we wanted to check out his most famous film to see how they compare, as well as maybe discuss why he never really managed to break through after two solid efforts. The halls of this house are dark and foreboding, its inhabitants odd and creepy, and its soundtrack hip and bumping, so put on your headphones and hit play on your walkman and join us on this episode of The Rotten Horror Picture Show!