HOUSE OF THE DEVIL, THE

(director/writer: Ti West; cinematographer: Eliot Rockett; editor: Ti West; music: Jeff Grace; cast: Jocelin Donahue (Samantha), Greta Gerwig (Megan), Mary Woronov (Mrs. Ulman), Tom Noonan (Mr.Ulman), Dee Wallace (Landlady), Lena Dunham (voice-emergency operator), A J Bowen (Victor), Danielle Noe (Mother); Runtime: 93; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Josh Braun, Roger Kass, Larry Fessenden, Peter Phok; Magnet Releasing; 2009)

“Its climax fizzles out.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Ti West (“X”/”Pearl”) helms this minimalist scary horror pic, using 16mm film, that’s a tribute to the stylish 1980s horror pics. West also edits and co-writes it with Eliot Rockett. It has a tremendous build-up, but its climax fizzles out as it becomes illogical.

Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) is a college sophomore in a college town who needs money to pay her rent for her new apartment she’s renting from the landlady played by Dee Wallace. Her bimbo college friend Megan (Greta Gerwig, future director of Barbie), after Sam sees a campus flyer advertising for a babysitter job in an old dark house in the remote country, near a cemetery, owned by the creepy Mr. Ulman (Tom Noonan), agrees to drive her there. After some haggling, she will get $400 (enough for rent money) to mind not a child but Ulman’s semi-invalid mother-in-law overnight. Meanwhile he will watch the lunar eclipse with his wife (Mary Woronov).

It turns out the real reason for the job is that Ulman wants her present for a Satanic worshipping group’s ritual.

REVIEWED ON 6/22/2025  GRADE: C+
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