In 1983, financially struggling college student Samantha Hughes takes a strange babysitting job that coincides with a full lunar eclipse. She slowly realizes her clients harbor a terrifying secret, putting her life in mortal danger.
Check out our gallery of the 2021 Golden Globe nominees in the leading and supporting acting categories, as the characters they so brilliantly played and in real life
In 1983, financially struggling college student Samantha Hughes takes a strange babysitting job that coincides with a full lunar eclipse. She slowly realizes her clients harbor a terrifying secret, putting her life in mortal danger.
Promotionally released on VHS in a clamshell box. The last major motion picture released in that format was A History of Violence (2005). See more »
Goofs
When Samantha grabs the pizza, she holds the box vertically. This would cause the pizza to "collapse" inside the box. However, when she opens the box, the pizza is flat. Also, it appears as though a piece of the pizza is missing. However, what appears to be a missing piece is actually a part of the pizza that had shifted and collapsed when she held the box up See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Landlady:
I can tell you like it.
Samantha:
Oh, I love it. It's perfect.
Landlady:
Well, great. It's such a neat place. You know, I showed it to another girl this morning, but to be honest, I didn't like her very much. She looked like trouble, and I'm way too old to be dealing with all that nonsense. I go a lot on my gut feelings, and I have a good one about you. You remind me of my daughter.
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House of the Devil is a film that delves the audience into an atmosphere of a classical slasher film. The scenery and style of the misc-en-scene throughout the film heavily mirrors that of the ideal 80s slasher such as Halloween. The scenery in the film is one of its defining characteristics that help this movie stand out from other modern day horror films that rely heavily on special effects.
The overall best aspect of this film is its growing suspense. This is not a movie for those who love gore and constant assault on the senses. For the grand majority of the movie the audience held down by so much expectation it becomes almost unbearable. The audience grows attached to the very attractive main character (Jocelin Donahue) who despite her and her friend's best efforts to be sensible throughout the film falls victim to classic horror movie stereotypes. This attraction and connection to the main character as the suspense continues to build at a grueling pace make this part of the film truly great.
The excellent use of growing suspense throughout the film is also its biggest downfall as the audience is filled to the brim with expectation only to have that feeling shattered by a very rushed ending. The ending assaults your senses too fast and is too unbelievable. The audience becomes disconnected as the realistic suspense of the majority of the film at this grueling pace is replaced by an unrealistic ending that happens all too fast.
Another positive aspect of this film that should be mentioned is the comic relief of the best friend (Greta Gerwig) delivering excellent amount of fun in the face of this growing suspense.
Overall the majority of this film has all the aspects of a classical slasher of growing suspense. However, the pacing at the end and the disconnect from this suspenseful first half of the film served as a large disappointment.
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House of the Devil is a film that delves the audience into an atmosphere of a classical slasher film. The scenery and style of the misc-en-scene throughout the film heavily mirrors that of the ideal 80s slasher such as Halloween. The scenery in the film is one of its defining characteristics that help this movie stand out from other modern day horror films that rely heavily on special effects.
The overall best aspect of this film is its growing suspense. This is not a movie for those who love gore and constant assault on the senses. For the grand majority of the movie the audience held down by so much expectation it becomes almost unbearable. The audience grows attached to the very attractive main character (Jocelin Donahue) who despite her and her friend's best efforts to be sensible throughout the film falls victim to classic horror movie stereotypes. This attraction and connection to the main character as the suspense continues to build at a grueling pace make this part of the film truly great.
The excellent use of growing suspense throughout the film is also its biggest downfall as the audience is filled to the brim with expectation only to have that feeling shattered by a very rushed ending. The ending assaults your senses too fast and is too unbelievable. The audience becomes disconnected as the realistic suspense of the majority of the film at this grueling pace is replaced by an unrealistic ending that happens all too fast.
Another positive aspect of this film that should be mentioned is the comic relief of the best friend (Greta Gerwig) delivering excellent amount of fun in the face of this growing suspense.
Overall the majority of this film has all the aspects of a classical slasher of growing suspense. However, the pacing at the end and the disconnect from this suspenseful first half of the film served as a large disappointment.