House Of The Devil

Relive the horror of Frightfest 2009
Spencer
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House Of The Devil

Post by Spencer »

was amazing. total lets scare jessica vibe to it, nothing happens , just slowly creeps you out then BAM !

The first movie in a few years that actually had me on edge and feeling uncomfortable sitting through it.
Bravo that film.
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Post by DavieT »

I was a little apprehensive about this one before mainly because it was Ti West and I remember hating The Roost. However I was very pleasantly surprised by this movie. The 80's setting and feel was absolutely spot on and the suspense built slowly and well - probably one of the few movies that made me jump the entire weekend. Great to see Mary Woronov up on screen again too. Overall excellent and definitely at no 3 of my top 5 beaten only by Millenium and Heartless.
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Post by splittter »

Really good film, probably tied for top spot along with The Horde and Trick R Treat ... period setting was superb ... the simplicity of the story and the way the tension was built was just excellent ... and the 'release' when it came was just as brilliant in its own right. Was a bit disappointed in the ending, at the time I rationalised it by thinking the films it was paying homage to would definitely have gone for an ending like that ... but then after the director said it wasn't a homage ... in which case it should have just ended after the gunshot, but that's just a minor quibble really, excellent stuff.
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Post by sherbetbizarre »

Ti West likes to move his films slower than they should be... but it was still my film of the day.
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The Soapmaker
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Post by The Soapmaker »

A really great old-fashioned psychological horror movie, proving that in the hands of a skilled director a film can be bloody terrifying without resorting to a series of cheap shock moments. Excellent.

One of the best Q&A's of the weekend, too.
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Post by Hello Doris! »

Really liked this one, still waiting for my poster :D
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Post by goregoregirl »

I liked this a lot, even though it was quite slow it helped build tension and create a great atmosphere. I quite fancy Ti West too, so maybe that helped a bit as well.
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Post by djwoody »

Pretty good but far too slow to get to the good stuff. Attention to detail for the 80's look and feel was superb.
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Post by Laymonite »

I thought this was the best film of the FFX. On the surface, the whole 80s look and feel was fantastic, even down to the font style used for the credits.

But that wouldn't have counted for much (a little but not much) had the film been pants and it wasn't. I felt this was an example of a slow build up that was done well. I found it really worked.

And the ending excited me too, I was really hoping she would get away!
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Post by Tommy-Boy »

A really good movie - the way the tension was built up, the whole 80's look and feel. Brilliant.
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Post by jonbly »

This would have made a great short... at quarter of an hour. But after an hour of watching her mooch around her campus / the not-very-creepy house, jonbly had lost the will to live. It's nice to see that when the heroine's too stupid to pick the gun up, the creepy old woman takes pity on her and ignores it too...

And shooting herself in the gut would have made a lot more sense.

5/10
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Post by Jekyll »

Took way too long to get going and was a touch long as well.

Well made though.
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Post by kimblebee »

As soon at the opening titles came up i think a few people in the audience got particularly excited (myself included)- a brilliant homage to the late 70s/ early 80s tense slasher/ demon movies, reminded me a lot of Halloween...

I have to say one of the most tense moments for me was when she was dancing around with her walkman on - i kept thinking, this would be a brilliant moment for something to come out and get her, because no-one (least of all the audience) would expect it. But I did die a little inside when the door bell rang, and after jumping a mile out of my seat experienced a moment of delirium thinking that it was a phone ringing, even after she answered the door!

Another shock had to be her best mate Megan getting smoked in the car - totally wasn't expecting that! See kids, if you're lighting up and not paying attention, you might get shot - that was the moral I took from that part of the story :-)

Maybe the ending spoiled it a little for me - i even heard someone behind shout "what?!" when we panned across to see her lying in a hospital bed after blowing her brains out. Maybe should have just left it at the cemetary...?
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Post by Muffy St. John »

Absolutely the best of the fest for me. Beautiful period piece, was sorry it had to end. Ti West directed sequel PLEASE!!?!?!?
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Post by AdeBrown »

The more I think about it the more this was my favourite film of FF10.
It's the one we saw that I will seek out from the DVD shops
(NB. there are a few we missed that also fit this bill).

As above, the period was not just evoked, but you could drop this film into 198-whenever-that-walkman-came-out or (maybe more easily) tell someone it was an old film, and no-one would be wiser.

The slow build was excellent, especially since there were plenty of times during that sequence that the more jaded horror fans would've been expecting the sting.

And yes, Q&A star !

Sequel ?
Hmmm, only if he directs it in the style of a 1990s post-Scream cash-in ;-)
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