Rating of
4/4
The House of the Devil
Drive-In Massacre - wrote on 10/10/11
Now, this one was a real treat. I saw the dvd box for this about two years ago and I never forgot it, I don't know why, but I wanted to see since then. Oddly enough, I never once read up on it, so once I had the opportunity to watch I went into it with absolutely no clue what to expect...at all.
I had no idea that it was going to be "Grindhouse-esque" film, emulating the look and storytelling of films of its era, and in all honesty, as far as that aspect is concerned it is nothing short of perfect, the look especially gets it better than Rodriguez and Tarantino. If I was shown a scene from this movie and wasn't told what year it was released, I could have very well guessed that it came out around '83, and I could almost always tell if it's authentic. It gets the look of early 80s horror films, like Boogie Nights get's the culture of the 70s. It's not like in a Rob Zombie movie where everyone looks like they're from the 2000s, but are wearing old Cereal box logos on their t-shirts. These actors have the hairdos, the perfect clothing, and filmed with the perfect angles, titles/credits, cinematography, they even shoot on 16mm! It's legit.
But other than that it is actually a really engaging and truly creepy little film, you can see really obvious influences from Carpenter, Argento, Polanski and to some extent Lynch. The ending gets a little crazy, but it is seriously a thoroughly good horror film in any respect. Every actor has a great performance, especially Tom Noonan. there's lots of really original, unexpected moments, and the music and setting is incredible for the film's concept (for the longest time I couldn't figure out why, until after the film I read that it's my home state of Connecticut.) Who woulda thought the guy who did Cabin Fever 2, had some skill? Just great stuff. Highly recommend it for any horror fan and film buff.
B+/A-
