MeFi horror club: House of the Devil

January 9, 2015 6:31 AM

House of the Devil is one of those movies that's better not to know anything about the plot beforehand. Released in 2009, it is made to look like a horror movie from the late 70s/early 80s, and pulls off this aesthetic remarkably well. At the same time it is just a great horror movie, extremely effective at slowly building suspense to a terrifying climax. House of the Devil is available for streaming on Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Reviews from Rotten Tomatoes (linked above -- although I strongly recommend against reading very much about this movie before seeing it):

"In this era of torture porn and slasher pics, House of the Devil is a shining example of how to build atmosphere and tension the old-fashioned way."

"Laden with dread and executed with a musician's sense of timing, The House of the Devil is better than a substantial number of the films it resembles."

"Now this is how you make a scary movie. The House of the Devil is a delicious throwback to the golden era of Hollywood horror -- one that is unapologetically earnest and overwhelmingly committed to the task at hand."

More about Horror Club.

posted by Librarypt (8 comments total)

I need to give this one another go. The first time I saw it, I was unimpressed, but I ended up loving Ti west's followup, The Innkeepers, so maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind that day.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:54 AM on January 9, 2015

Ha, that's funny because I didn't like The Innkeepers (although it did have a couple stand-out scary moments). I didn't realize it was made by the same person.

This movie definitely isn't for everyone, but that's true of pretty much any movie.
posted by Librarypt at 10:43 AM on January 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm in.
posted by Literaryhero at 1:44 PM on January 9, 2015

I was trying to remember where I'd heard the title before....oh, it just faces the bed. I hope it's not too scary otherwise we're going to have to rearrange my boyfriend's VHS shelf.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 2:47 PM on January 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

ugh just watched this based on the horrorclub thing but was pretty unimpressed/bored.
posted by zutalors! at 6:37 PM on January 9, 2015

I thought this movie was awesome. Do it!
posted by valkane at 7:48 PM on January 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

Woohoo! Canadian Netflix has this one!

Will watch. Loved The Inkeepers so here's hoping it's some of that same stuff
posted by Hoopo at 10:03 AM on January 12, 2015

You had me with Gretta Gerwig.
posted by phearlez at 12:21 PM on January 13, 2015