3 out of 5

Director: Ti West

If you are looking for something new, flashy, super scary or twisty… well, you probably didn’t care about this movie anyway. BUT – just in case the layout of the poster and the title font doesn’t give it away – “House of the Devil” IS for those horror/movie fans with keen memories of 80s horror that you either snuck into or stayed up late to watch on TV. It is a fantastic tribute to this era, through the way its shot (wikipedia tells me director Ti West used 16mm film to get that classic look), cut, scored, and acted. And the fact that it’s predictable isn’t what works against it… I mean, it’s got “Devil” in the title and there’s text before the movie starts about satanic cults… It’s the fact that after spending a great forty minutes or so taking time to build up beautiful suspense through sparse sound, great, great sets and fantastic lighting, the film throws a couple stops in there that really just break the movie up, making the payoff portion of the film a pretty big letdown. These moments occur when the viewer steps outside of the POV of the film’s protagonist. The first of these moments is fine, as we follow a side character to a good shock. But the sidetracks after this is get questionable, and it’s curious why they weren’t saved or dispensed of entirely. And for all of the build-up, the film’s resolution seems to come a bit too quickly and easily. Anyhow, the acting is fantastic, with Tom Noonan being SUPERBLY creepy with some great dialogue, and Jocelin Donahue playing a great balance of innocent and intelligent. And much as I hate to admit it after the crappy “Baghead,” Greta Gerwig was awesome, and I totally would’ve married her character. Worth watching at least once, and maybe watching the title sequence twice.