The House of the Devil follows a college student (Samantha) who is looking for some extra money and decides to answer an ad for what seems like elder care. A friend drops her off at a remote house in the woods on the night of a lunar eclipse. The spooky man who owns the house says his mother will be upstairs sleeping and he just needs the girl to watch over the house while he is gone to an eclipse party. When the friend who dropped her off is brutally murdered, we can only wait for the other shoe to fall on Samantha. Why was she lured to the house and what gruesome fate awaits her?
This was Ti West's breakthrough movie and it remains one of my favorites in the slow burn horror genre. Tom Noonan is perfect as the creepy man asking a young lady (Jocelin Donahue as Samantha) to take care of his mother. Greta Gerwig plays the free-wheelin' best friend with all the right notes. AJ Bowen is great as a menacing drifter. The main complaint I have ever heard about the movie is that nothing happens for a very long time in it. There is a building sense of dread and, besides a quick moment of horrific violence between Bowen and Gerwig, the plot simmers along with no regard for cheap scares or fake outs. By the time the shit hits the fan in the third act, things get crazy enough to make up for the slow pace of the beginning.
Personally, I love a good build up to a scare. Alien doesn't even get to the alien for the first hour. By the time the moon is eclipsing and evil is afoot at the remote house in the woods, we have spent enough time with Donahue's Samantha to know her as a character.
I would strongly recommend House of the Devil for anyone with patience and an appreciation for some 70s horror.
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