The House Of The Devil(2009)

Here's a new one for all of you "sleeper-slasher" fans. Well, it's not really a slasher film per se, but you get what I am talking about. The House Of The Devil actually looks like a film that was shot in the 80's(aside from a few minor blunders), and sits comfortably among the great "quiet" films of that genre(The Unseen, Madhouse, Unhinged, Silent Scream). This film was just released in October to an obviously low number of screens, and is playing simultaneously on VOD channels. But if you are an Internet troll, you can find several places to watch it online for free.

The story concerns a young college student named Samantha, who is hard up for cash and is persuaded into a very strange "babysitting" job by the promise of a big paycheck. As I said before this is a very slow-building kind of film, and for the first hour nothing much happens except for Samantha wandering around the creepy old mansion, being scared by creaks and groans. Although I love gore, I do not feel that a horror movie needs to be loaded with it in order for me to enjoy. Just the promise of what might be there, is sometimes scarier than what is actually there. The weird couple that hire her(the female being the great, Mary Woronov), tell her that she is sitting with an elderly woman, and that she probably will never even see her. Things definitely get tense as Samantha discovers the reason that she is really there.

This is actually the first "throwback" film that I have been really impressed with. Everything about it screams 80's, right down to grainy look of the film. If you are one of the few who relish an actual scary story over gore galore, track down The House Of The Devil, you won't be sorry you did. 7.5/10