‘Are you not the babysitter?’
College student Samantha (Joceline Donahue) needs to move out of her dorm. Her roommate is driving her insane; she’s selfish, messy and lazy. Sam quickly finds the perfect place, with lovely Landlady (she doesn’t have a name, but she’s played by Scream Queen Dee Wallace) letting her skip on the deposit and just pay a month’s rent in advance. However, Sam’s still worried about how she’ll pay the rent and is desperate for a job.
As luck would have it, she finds an ad for a babysitter. When the father, Mr. Ulman (Tom Noonan), fails to turn up for the interview, a disheartened Sam meets her friend Megan (Greta Gerwig) for a pizza. Megan jokes that they should steal all the remaining ads so that no-one else calls and Mr. Ulman (wait...Mr. Ulman...like, The Shining Mr. Ulman?) is forced to hire Sam.
And that’s exactly what happens. Megan steals all the ads, but Mr. Ulman has already called Sam’s dorm-room while she’s out to apologise for standing her up and to offer her the job.
Megan drives her to the Ulman’s house, but gets weirded out when Ulman explains that they don’t actually have a kid and they need Sam to look after his elderly mother. It’s only after Sam negotiates a $400 pay that she agrees to stay.
It’s not long before Sam gets weirded out being in the house on her own, and for good reason. Though nothing much happens until the final third of the film, when it does kick off it kicks off big style.
This isn’t just a homage to the 80s slasher, it’s a love letter. Ti West captures the style of the era perfectly. The dialogue, the wardrobe, the grainy cinematography, the performances, absolutely everything makes this feel like it was made forty years ago. Jocelin Donahue looks like the perfect 70’s / 80’s final girl.
Content warning: demons, brains, WHY ARE YOU RUNNING UP THE STAIRS.
Final verdict: Mischief! Mischief! Mischief! (see Inside No.9, series 1, episode 6, The Harrowing. It makes an excellent companion piece).
You can stream The House of the Devil on Tubi and Amazon Prime
