House Hunting

Again, I’m not sure why we queued up The House of the Devil (2009). There was some kind of list of movies that looked interesting, and this was one of the only ones available on Netflix DVD. Anyway, it’s directed by Ti West (The Innkeepers), which was good enough for us.

It starts with college student Jocelyn Donahue looking at an apartment in a nice looking suburban house. The landlady seems sweet and is willing to waive the deposit if Donahue can give her the first month’s rent. Could this be the House of the Devil?

Donahue doesn’t have the money, and is desperate to move out of her dorm room, where her roommate spends all her time in bed with boys. She sees an flyer for a babysitting job (among all the posters for the upcoming lunar eclipse), and calls. The man who answers is a little weird, but seems to really need a sitter. Her friend, Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird) drives her out to the job, deep in the dark woods, in an creepy old mansion - OK, this is the House.

The guy offering the job is Tom Noonan, a distinguished but slightly weird older man. But it isn’t really a babysitting job, it’s elder care for his mother. He assures Donahue that he’ll pay triple (enough to pay for the first month’s rent) and she probably won’t even see mom. She finally agrees, and sends Gerwig home, expecting to get picked up at 12:30. So no matter what happens, at least she has that for back up. Or does she?

So Noonan and his wife, Mary Woronov (wish she had a bigger role) take off, maybe to go to see the eclipse. Donahue puts on her Walkman and starts bopping around the house to the Fixx - did I mention that this takes place in the 80s? This is the creepy middle act. We’ve seen a little horror, but mostly it’s just Donahue poking around, either oblivious under headphones or nervous or both. Things don’t get really bad for her until the last act.

I’ve mentioned this takes place in the 80s. It was filmed in 16 mm, with obvious grain and the camera techniques of the period. The story has a lot of references to horror of the period as well. The babysitting job from Halloween, for ex. Also, Gerwig’s character is the kind of stoner-type that Nancy Loomis plays in that movie. Not to mention the Rosemary’s Baby -SPOILER!- ending.

In conclusion, my only complaint was the lunar eclipse. Before the eclipse, the moon seemed to be around a quarter full - but lunar eclipses only happen on full moons. Then the eclipse started, but there was none of the spooky redness you see before totality. Come on, a blood moon! And it could have been done with a filter or some stock footage. So unrealistic.