31 Days of Horror Movies: The House of the Devil

Day 3 of our horror movie fest finds us with a 2009 film set during the 1980s. Welcome to....

The House of the Devil

Ti West's little film boasts some pretty big surprises, although it takes awhile to get there. Jocelin Donahue plays Samantha, a college girl looking to make some fast cash by taking a babysitting job at big, scary-looking house in the country. Her friend Megan drives her out there, and senses that something's up, to no avail.

Samantha's employer for the night is a Mr. Ulman (played in a creepily soft manner by Tom Noonan). When she arrives, he admits to a slight deception: instead of there being a baby or a child to sit for, Samantha will instead have to watch Ulman's invalid mother. But he offers more money than Samantha can refuse, so she stays.

The House of the Devil does a good job in re-creating aspects of 1980s horror films, from the (expected) props, clothing styles and vehicles, to the slightly grainy look of the film, down to the format of the credits. The film is also paced noticeably slower than modern day movies, that is, until the last act. Things go a little bonkers at that point. Overall, it's some pretty good fun.

* 'House of the Devil' will be playing at C-U's Art Theater in downtown Champaign the weekend of October 19th. Be sure to catch it!

Comments

Yesterday's Restaurants

The local newspaper has a feature from one of Champaign-Urbana's most legendary restaurateur's, John Katsinas, on what his favorite area restaurants were that have now since closed (or will soon be closing). It's a nice little read, and has made me stop and think about the restaurants that have come and gone that have left an indelible (and edible) impression on me throughout the years. Here we go....

To the beat of his own Drum

Tonight I learned that Kevin Drum has died. He passed away on Friday, March 7th, from Multiple Myeloma (the same illness that took my uncle Paul several years ago). Drum's diagnosis came in 2014, and he talked about it openly on his blog , up to and including just a few days before his death. I knew of Kevin Drum through his blogging. During the early aughts, when I started to become more politically aware and involved, I began reading certain online musings by folks -- Andrew Sullivan and, on a local level, IlliniPundit, to name a couple. Drum's blog at that time was Calpundit . Eventually, he began blogging at Mother Jones . When they parted ways, he started what would be his final online venture. So, yeah, I've been reading Kevin's musings for over twenty years.

Watching The Hours

A Twitter friend named Paula has asked for folks to submit ideas for a blog-a-thon about what we think will be the classic films of the future. In other words, what relatively recent movies (namely, from the 21st century), do we think will be considered classics in the decades to come, possibly airing on such venerable stations as Turner Classic Movies ? While a number of films come to mind for such a category, one in particular stood out from the rest, and thus is my entry for Paula's blog-a-thon.

Left to my own devices

Search This Blog