When I was in high school, I was the go-to neighborhood babysitter. It was an easy job, and it helped me get to know my new neighborhood better. I had just moved from New Hampshire to Oregon, where the winters get unusually dark, and late at night into the early morning, you could hear coyotes howling in the distance. Usually, I babysat three or four nights a week for one family who, after a while, stopped paying me hourly and just handed me a crisp hundred-dollar bill at the end of the night, no matter how many hours I worked. It was basically like striking gold at 16.
I loved babysitting, but sometimes, in the quiet hours when the kids were fast asleep upstairs, my mind would wander. Was this family really what they seemed? What if they were hiding something? No, of course not. But then again, you hear stories all the time…hey, what was that noise?
Ti West’s underrated The House of the Devil (2009), set authentically in the ’80s, follows Samantha (Jocelin Donahue), a broke college student desperate to move out of her dorm and into her own apartment off campus. She takes a high-paying babysitting job from Mr. Ulman (Tom Noonan), who admits she won’t be caring for a small child, but for his elderly mother-in-law, who is sleeping upstairs. Sam’s friend, Megan (a pre-Barbie Greta Gerwig, who should have won an award for Best Pizza Eating in a Horror Movie), thinks the whole situation is strange. Plus, there’s a full lunar eclipse. Anything can happen.
And when things happen…they happen fast. Turns out, Mr. Ulman’s mother-in-law is a lot more aggressive than advertised, and Samantha is getting more than just a few hundred dollars for her time.
“The House of the Devil is all about mood, tension, and buildup, and it delivers in spades on all of these levels,” said Paul McCannibal in his review for Dread in 2009. “For viewers who truly appreciate atmospheric horror, the journey is definitely the ultimate reward in this film.”
I latched onto Ti West’s The House of the Devil long before the X trilogy made him a household horror name. It’s a slow-burn, mumblecore gem “steeped in ’80s-gore nostalgia.” And it’s probably one of the few horror movies that accurately captures the uneasiness of being young, vulnerable, and alone in a stranger’s house after dark. Don’t forget to order your pizza.
The House of the Devil is available to stream now on Prime Video. If you love it, let me know: @ashjenexi on Instagram and X.
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