Review of The House of the Devil
The House of the Devil (2009) Dir. Ti West
Ti West’s The House of the Devil makes a wonderful companion piece to his film The Innkeepers. Both maintain the director’s referential approach to horror, encapsulating it in a slow burning 90 minutes that manages to build and maintain tension while cheekily winking to the audience and showing the mechanisms behind the scares.
Whereas the X trilogy of films (X, 2022, Pearl, 2022, and MaXXXine, 2024) paid tribute to the excesses of 70s grindhouse and 80s slashers, The House of the Devil owes more to cult and ghost stories. Rosemary’s Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968) looms large over the plot, similarly there are hints of classics like The Changeling (Peter Medak, 1980) with the various bumps and groans in the titular house.
As such, there are no jump scares to be had here. Just an overwhelming sense of inevitability, that becomes more frightening as the film progresses.
Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) is cash strapped and looking for work when she comes across a flyer looking for a babysitter. She heads to the address along with her friend Megan (Greta Gerwig) and is greeted by the Ullmans (Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov). West fully puts the audience in Samantha’s shoes, asking what we would do for money, even if the terms of the agreement are changed on the fly.
Instead of babysitting a child, Samantha is to watch the house and ensure that the family’s matriarch remains undisturbed. Once the Ullmans leave the house, and Megan hides back to the dorms, the isolation and noises from upstairs build as Samantha starts to regret her decision.
It never quite reaches the highs of The Innkeepers, where West would perfect his slow building horror tributes, but this is the film that secured his place amongst the mumblegore troupe that included Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett.
And Second Sight have done an incredible job with this release, upscaling the picture while retaining that 16mm grain that gave The House of the Devil its tactile visuals. As you’d expect, it’s also crammed with brand new features, including interviews with the cast and crew, covering the film in general and the importance of sound in these subtle horror films.
The limited edition version also includes stunning new artwork from Nick Charge and essays from Martyn Conterio, Ariel Powers-Schaub, Jerome Reuter and Julieann Stipidis.
Second Sight has been on a real streak of excellent special editions, putting out definite editions of undisputed classics and newer entries into the canon. The House of the Devil is another win from them.
★★★★
4 / 5
Matthew Tilt
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Second Sight Films release Ti West’s The House of the Devil in a brand-new Limited Edition set for release on 28 April 2025 alongside a Standard Edition Blu-ray.
