Thoughts on House of the Devil

Friday, July 2, 2010 8:02 PM By Simon


-Why, Mr. West, did you neglect Greta Gerwig so? We all know she's awesome, why reduce her to second-act slaughter (this is too soon for spoiler tag)?

-I love all the little touches to give a retro vibe: 16mm film, the zoom-ins instead of crane shots, walkmans, feathered horrors, freeze-frame yellow-font opening credits and end-credits-over-last-still, and they don't beat you over the head with it, either. The only quintessential eighties chick is a bit part near the beginning, as hero Samantha (Jocelin Donahue, who looks like she should be a seventies actress)'s slutty and flighty roommate.

-I also love the slow and deliberate pacing, leading to a quick and (somewhat) shocking climax, and a punch-t-the-nuts ending. Also very eighties. No ironic mocking of the conventions of the satanic panic films, played gloriously straight.

-Did you know these were promoted by critics-only distribution of VHS tapes? Where can I get one!?

-In unrelated news, I just got a shitload of McSweeney's swag. Yay.

6 comments:

Thomas said...

Man, I have pretty mixed feelings about this and basically all of Ti West´s movies. I appreciate that he´s trying to create films that are a throwback to the horror movies of yesteryear but what I feel that the problem is that he´s basically trying to create HIS versions of other director´s films. I think that West should try to find his own voice, instead of focusing on channeling others, so to speak...

July 3, 2010 at 4:39 AM
Luke said...

Good thoughts. I thought this movie was very cool - for all the same reasons. The slow build-up toward the climax made the climax (and that sudden scene in the car) all the more explosive.

July 3, 2010 at 11:03 AM
Colin Biggs said...

I have no idea how long it's going to be for me to find this.

July 3, 2010 at 11:45 AM
The Taxi Driver said...

I've been hearing a lot about this movie. I must check it out now.

July 3, 2010 at 3:45 PM
TheUnwashedMass said...

I quite enjoyed this film. It's simple but effective. Very tense. And I was looking for one of those VHS tapes as well!

July 4, 2010 at 1:22 PM
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