In the 1980s, 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.
Even the familiar tropes of The House of the Devil are familiar in the right way, like an old, bloodstained sweater.
– Michael Phillips,
Chicago Tribune,
12 Nov 2009
fresh:
There's a payoff in The House of the Devil, if you have the patience. Some of the scenes seem draggy, but the characters are complex, and their motivations are explained.
– Peter Hartlaub,
San Francisco Chronicle,
19 Nov 2009
fresh:
West, a rising young director of minor cult pleasures, comes clean here about his love for all things Bava (Mario) and Carpenter (John).
– Ty Burr,
Boston Globe,
3 Dec 2009
fresh:
In keeping with his models, West is concerned with not suspense exactly but the ritual withholding and ultimate lavishing of bloody chaos.
– J. R. Jones,
Chicago Reader,
17 Dec 2009
fresh:
The film's nostalgic design is subtle enough not to dampen the seriously sinister atmospherics.