House of the Devil

Dissecting the Complaints About the Film

I read in a interview how the director, Ti West, wanted to make this movie with an 1980's feel to it, but also how the theme of 80's horror movies were made. The star of the movie, Jocelin Donahue (Samantha), wears oldschool jordache jeans, she carries around a clunky SONY walkman, and has an 80's thick wavy hair style. There is also a caption at the beginning of the movie that mentions events that happened in the 80's, but more on that in a bit.

The basic plot of the movie is Samantha takes a babysitting job from strangers to earn rent money. An older couple played by Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov (Mr and Mrs Ulman) have only spoken to Samantha over the phone and given her directions to their home. When Samantha arrives driven by her best friend Megan (Greta Gerwig) to the house to babysit, she is told by the creepy old Mr Ulman that she'll actually be keeping watch on an elderly woman instead. At first reluctant, Samantha agrees to the job for a $400 payday.

I remember watching it, and immediately thinking that when Samantha goes to babysit, and things seem really weird vibe-wise, that she made the classic mistake of allowing her friend to leave, and even more at fault for not getting the hell out herself when she had the chance. Ofcourse if she did trust her instinct and left, then we have no horror movie right?

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