HOUSE OF THE DEVIL Post Release

[devincf]

http://chud.com/articles/articles/21...VIL/Page1.html

[Phil]

Well, that's not good news.

[EvilTwin]

I liked it better than Devin did, a camera prowling after a girl "alone" in an old house at night works for me, but his criticisms are spot on. Looks good, but completely arbitrary and meaningless with the 80s homage adding nothing. And the ending just doesn't work. Plus the opening goes on way too long. There's one event that really works, I think Devin alludes to it nicely in his review, but it's a movie that's otherwise completely without surprise. Doesn't even have a cat jump scare.

[devincf]

I couldn't believe how long the opening went on for. When they were eating pizza forever I was wondering if the whole film was a joke.

[EvilTwin]

It really doesn't help that the main character is as generic as can be. Supposedly she's a clean freak, but there's really only one gag for that, and that's a trait not a characterization. Add on she price gouges more than necessary and accidentally causes property damage and it's hard to be entirely sympathetic towards her.

I'll add that the movie made me appreciate just how good Jamie Lee Curtis was in Halloween even more. Caring for the protagonist helps a lot in a horror movie.

I agree that Tom Noonan is very good in his main scene.

[Nicholas]

I trust your opinion and everything, Devin but I'll still probably check it out at some point just because that poster is so amazing. Until I see it for myself, there is always going to be a small part of me thinking, "If it's so bad, how did they come up with such a fantastic poster!?"

[Dross]

Is it just me or did Greta Gerwig look like she had eaten one of the Duplass brothers since the last time she was in anything?

[devincf]

She's sexy as hell.

[Dross]

I agree, but I honestly wouldn't have recognized her without seeing her name in the opening credits. Maybe it was just the 80's hair.

[Rene (Mr.Eko)]

So kickass poster and period setting aside, this flick is a dud? That's damn sad. I'll probably still check it out, but this flick being a dud and Cabin Fever 2 still being unreleased do West nothing good.

[Tom Fuchs]

I disagree with the review because I rather enjoyed the movie, but I'm much more susceptible to the slow burn than most and was with the film one hundred percent of the way. I felt like West just gave you enough knowledge that things were fucked from the get-go to keep me strung along until the end.

And the way I saw the 70's/80's homage stuff working was that the film is using a very modern sort of sound design and gore FX that butt heads in an incongruous way with the rather purposefully stiff camera movement, but I thought the combination of those competing styles ended with some sort of weird horror movie alchemy because damned if it didn't work for me.

[Tim Long]

Just finished this. The movie did a nice job of mimicking the look of older horror flicks, and Jocelin Donahue and Greta Gerwig are incredibly cute. That's about all I liked about this movie. I was particularly terrified during the 30th time Donahue walked up a flight of stairs and reached her hand out slowly toward something. I don't mind a nice slow burn horror film, but if you're gonna do it at least have some sort of satisfying climax, this doesn't.

[Pepe]

I caught this on Demand. I dug it, but the criticisms are dead on. I get that they're trying to go with the slow burn, building dread thing, but they simply didn't generate enough tension. The payoff also was kind of a let down as well, and the end scene left more to be desired.

[Pepe]

Originally Posted by Rene (Mr.Eko)

So kickass poster and period setting aside, this flick is a dud? That's damn sad. I'll probably still check it out, but this flick being a dud and Cabin Fever 2 still being unreleased do West nothing good.

I don't know if Dud is the word, but it's underwhelming.

[Jacob Singer]

Watched this last night on HDNet Movies. Devin's review is spot-on.

[Bancroft Agee]

Predictable and plodding. I have no problems with set up or building suspense and atmosphere as long as there is some sort of payoff to that but there never was. It was nice seeing Tom Noonan working though. I thought he did well with what he was given to work with.

[Ray Abed]

I gotta say this film gave me the creeps in an old-fashioned sense. The slow-burn horror flicks are usually the ones that are quite effective for me. But I understand where Devin's coming from. The tone and atmosphere just happened to be very unsettling in the state-of-mind I was in last night.

[Ratty]

This movie made Jim Jarmusch films look "frentic" in comparison. Agonizingly slow and uninspired. Big mistake bumping off Gerwig early as she was the only bright spot in the film.

[Doc Phibes]

Well, I loved it. So did a lot of other folks in the theater I was in, judging from the applause. Maybe being trapped in a dark movie theater with a big screen looming over me helped. The slow burn had me all worked up in knots. Great old school horror, IMHO. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

[devincf]

WHat is this 'old school' people keep talking about? I've seen A LOT of old horror films and they tend to have something happen during the course of the movie.

[Ray Abed]

I think it's the look of the film, Devin. There's something sinister and foreboding about the film's visual style.

After two decades of slickly-produced, overly-exaggerated horror flicks, HOUSE OF THE DEVIL feels like an old friend from the past.

[Tom Fuchs]

Yeah, I think old school is more talking about the way the film is shot than anything else. I can totally get not being on board with this movie though. If you're stomach isn't coiled like a spring throughout the first hour plus this movie simply is going to be a chore to get through. For me, my nerves were being completely worked over. It gave you just enough of a taste with that (awesome) early scare and little tidbits showing how terribly wrong things are without our lead knowing that I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop and absolutely loved the editing crescendo that led to it.

[Phil]

Lots of old school movies are boring as shit. (Don't Go Into The Woods, Demon Wind, Predator: The Quietus)

This one seems like my "geek acceptance" thing, where all the bad reviews in the world won't keep me from checking it out. Sigh.

[devincf]

Believe me, I know lots of old school movies are boring as hell. I still maintain that no old school movies have as little by way of incidence as something like HOUSE OF THE DEVIL does.

And yeah, the film looks like an early 80s movie... but to what end? What does that mean? What does that add?

[Phil]

It plays to the fetishists, I guess. The way some guys will see anything with D&D tropes in them, or the way gothy dorks will get behind Forever Knight.

And I'm always intrigued by movie forgeries, counterfeits, when a filmmaker tries to ape period aesthetics.

[devincf]

My half-assed theory is that it's a horror movie for the indie crowd that hates horror movies. But it's playing to too many horror audiences for that to really be the case.

The thing is that the movie's an irredeemable cock tease, and it's obvious after about 20 minutes that it is just not interested in giving up the goods. There are NO scares in the film.

[Sebastian OB]

The trailer appealed to me because it gave off a creepy LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH vibe. It's definitely aimed at people with a sweet spot for 70's & early 80's low budget horror.

[Ratty]

Originally Posted by devincf

My half-assed theory is that it's a horror movie for the indie crowd that hates horror movies. But it's playing to too many horror audiences for that to really be the case.

The thing is that the movie's an irredeemable cock tease, and it's obvious after about 20 minutes that it is just not interested in giving up the goods. There are NO scares in the film.

There's about forty minutes of this film where I thought I'd wandered across a slightly spooky HGTV network show. It's nothing but walking up and down staircases and across living rooms.

[Disciple_72]

Originally Posted by Sebastian OB

The trailer appealed to me because it gave off a creepy LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH vibe.

Jessica being a great example of boresploitation done right- boring ass 70s horror with just enough atmosphere and cool bits (e.g. freaky backwards hanging tractor guy) to justify its existence.

[Ray Abed]

See, I think the film is scary in its psychological terror. When it comes to things involving the Satanic occult, I tend to become uneasy and on edge. Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov play one hell of a creepy duo.

[Sebastian OB]

So, I caught this yesterday and I enjoyed it. I agree with a lot of what Devin has to say -- there seems to be padding in almost every scene in the first half of the film and as a result it feels like almost nothing happens. I was expecting the end to go nowhere, so when it actually did I was pleasantly surprised. It gets pretty crazy and intense there so I don't agree that there is no real payoff. I felt the payoff was pretty satisfactory.

Having grown up in New England in the late 70's/early 80's, I felt the film captured the creepy vibe of that area and time period magnificently. The performances were all strong across the board and the lead bopping around the house listening to The Fixx was adorable. I loved the way the film was shot; the lighting and the super 16 look was amazing. For me, that was enough to get me through the slow bits. And Noonan and Woronov were a lot of fun.

It's not really a great film, I will admit, but if you've got a soft spot for this type of horror film, a type of horror film that is never made these days, I think THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL is well worth a watch.

[Count Chocula]

Originally Posted by Phil

Lots of old school movies are boring as shit. (Don't Go Into The Woods, Demon Wind, Predator: The Quietus)

This one seems like my "geek acceptance" thing, where all the bad reviews in the world won't keep me from checking it out. Sigh.

Huh? Don't Go In The Woods is like, the opposite of boring. It's essentially a piece of low-budget free form experimental cinema masquerading as a slasher film, eschewing traditional plot and narrative entirely in favor of loosely connected murder vignettes and gory tone poems. It's actually one of my favorite films of all time.

[Tomas Mejor]

Originally Posted by Count Chocula

Huh? Don't Go In The Woods is like, the opposite of boring. It's essentially a piece of low-budget free form experimental cinema masquerading as a slasher film, eschewing traditional plot and narrative entirely in favor of loosely connected murder vignettes and gory tone poems. It's actually one of my favorite films of all time.

You lack a soul.

[stump]

All the 'boring' stuff leading up the end sequence wouldn't have been bad if there had been a decent payoff. I enjoyed the progression of moving farther up the stairs every time, slowly getting deeper into this dark world. It's an obvious concept, but each of the sequences on their own are well paced - though it would have helped if there had been less filler in between and before the whole Devilhouse setup. Anyway, the end is such a mess. It's so tonally off relative to the rest of the movie, right from the start with the sequence of eight flashes of light, into the extremely clumsy shaky cam, confusing staging, blahblahblah. Aside from the sloppiness, it seems to get more into a 00s style of horror. And then when she shoots herself, no we didn't care at all - tension had not been built around the outcome of her character, so the preceding 90 minutes feel like a waste. And her being pregnant is just really dumb. Why can't we have a movie end without hinting towards unwanted sequels?

[Pepe]

I wouldn't call it a hint toward a sequel anymore than the reveal of the baby in Rosemary' Baby hinting at a sequel. It's just telling us that the devil worshipper's plot succeeded.