Film

The House of the Devil

Name: The House of the Devil
Genre: Horror, Mystery
Released: 2009
Cast: Jocelin Donahue, Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov, Greta Gerwig, AJ Bowen

Horror
Very dark

A retro-styled 1980s horror film about a broke college student who accepts a babysitting gig with deeply wrong people on the night of a lunar eclipse. Deliberately paced, gorgeously shot, and suffused with creeping dread. For people who believe atmosphere matters more than jump scares.

TMDb rating

3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love slow-burn horror that builds dread through atmosphere, period detail and long quiet stretches, the way early-80s Satanic-panic films did before anything bleeds.

Skip it if you need the scares to arrive steadily, since this takes a long, deliberate route to its first real jolt and many viewers will find the wait tedious rather than tense.

What it asks of you: Ninety-five minutes of patience: it moves at a crawl through everyday tasks, lets silences run, and saves its darkness for a late stretch, so you have to be willing to sit in the unease.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

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Rosemary's Baby1968

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Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The House of the Devil

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

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