Part of Hoop-Tober

“This one night changes everything for me.”

In the foyer, near the base of the grand staircase, sits a harpsichord.

Not a piano. Not even an organ. A harpsichord.

The house is already impressively creepy. So expansive yet so enclosed, so dark. Stairwells and passageways and so many rooms, all suitable for sneaking and hiding and misdirection. Everything about it is subtly unnerving—a grandparents’ home full of ugly wallpaper and linoleum and bric-a-brac, but with a sense that the grandson might be Damien. It’s reminiscent of the Victorian Bates manse in Psycho, itself inspired Edward Hopper’s The House by the Railroad. It is less a house than an imposition on good mental health. But it’s just a…

A person's vision is best portrayed the fewer the hands involved. I think that is what has worked best for Ti West's House of the Devil and in bringing it to life so successfully. Not only writing and directing, the fact he edited the film as well really kept his vision true and in tact.

The tone and pacing, while slow to build is used perfectly, adding an eerie and unsettling calm which eventually snowballs into intense and terrifying chaos.

Aside from Ti West's writing, directing, editing, cinematography, POV shots and all the technical aspects, his attention to detail was out of this world. There have been plenty of fantastic period-piece horror films but to have a throw back film,…

Daily Horror 3 - September 2018

I have been having some personal problems with the challenge list for this month. I go to watch the movie I picked for that day only to find out it has nothing to do with the daily requirement and I have no idea how I managed to do that, but then I’m writing this while working on my 4th drink so maybe I do know. Who can say.

Anyway, this movie creates the perfect fall mood. A particularly dark night, a creepy house, a cold snap in the air you can almost feel, minimal dialogue. I mean, you know this movie has achieved its goal when the hubs walks into the room while you’re…

Part of Lise and Jonnie’s Horror-o-thon 2014

Well that was a great kick-off to this year’s Horror-o-thon! Not knowing anything going in, I was convinced by the opening scenes that this was a late 70’s / early 80’s haunted house horrorer; that is until the very late 70’s / early 80’s opening credits rolled … oooh, it has Mary Waronov! Wait, what? How old is Gretta Gerwig?

Ti West’s House of the Devil is neither homage nor send-up, it’s something completely sincere. While I’m the farthest thing from a horror genre aficionado, I’ve had enough exposure to the classics from that era to see that this rings true. It reminded me of a small Spanish/Danish comedy from 2003, Torremolino '73…

Steeped in artifice and flimsy storytelling, Ti West's "The House of the Devil" seems to have caught the eye of horror fans hungry for a throwback to the heady and feather-haired days of 1980s thrillers. To be sure, the film is such a throwback as its design, pace, and sets all revel in the sensibilities of that past decade. Strip those touches away, however, and the film rates only as a run-of-the-mill horror film, relying too much on generating atmosphere and too little on building a satisfying narrative.

Taking place in an era wear the Fixx could be listened to on foam-padded Walkman headphones, the film revolves around Jocelin Donahue's Samantha, a college co-ed in need of a job. Finding…

A hard-luck college student reluctantly takes a babysitter job for an eccentric aging couple and events inevitably go from better to bad to worse...

Ti West effectively filters Polanski's paranoia through Carpenter's hearth while stripping the forced pretense usually embedded into the very fabric of such love letters. Never screaming its influences at the viewer, this understated approach rewards in several descriptives beginning with fore with repeat viewings. Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov are tremendous at beguiling Jocelin Donahue's Samantha into an on-edge sense of security.

As tension mounts, and this sounds like backpedaling on what was just said, things deflate a little when the scenario's inevitable true horror comes streaming in. Shouldn't be a surprise, House of the Devil…