HouseOfTheDevil Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Clockwise from upper left: Splinterheads, Ghost World, An Education, House of the Devil.

Opening. Amiable and pleasant, Splinterheads revolves around a romance between Justin (Thomas Middleditch), an aimless small town dreamer, and Galaxy (Rachael Taylor), a gorgeous grifter who (literally) bumps into him at a gas station. She's more interested in separating him from his money than getting to know the lunkhead within, while he quickly decides that he's met the love of his life -- or, even better, a reason to leave his upstate New York world behind and start living for himself instead of his mother and grandfather.

Brent Sersen (Blackballed) is a better director than writer; the characters hold few surprises and the plot's trajectory threatens to die of old age before it reaches its pre-ordained conclusion. Still, he takes advantage of a visiting carnival and the grifter's obsession with geocaching, a variation on treasure hunting, to string together several lyrical interludes and enough laughs to deserve a recommendation. Dean Winters, Lea Thompson, and Christopher McDonald provide reliable support. Splinterheads opens in New York on Friday and expands to other cities the following week; check the official site for theaters and showtimes. Also opening in New York the same day: Collapse, Chris Smith's latest doc (more from last week and the exclusive poster debut).

On-Demand / Online Viewing. Terry Zwigoff's adaptation of Daniel Clowes' graphic novel Ghost World departs from the source material quite abruptly, but still remains faithful to the dark spirit of loneliness that haunts the characters. Thora Birch, Scarlett Johannson, and Steve Buscemi star. It's now available on FilmBuff, Cinetic's cable on-demand channel; check local listings to watch this essential indie at home.

After the jump: Who educated the devil?

By Eric D. Snider (reprint from 5/3/2009 -- Tribeca Film Festival)

The House of the Devil is a great name for a movie. It hearkens back to the days of grindhouse horror, when a film's title and its trailer told you basically everything you needed to know. Yet it's different from those movies, too, in that it prefers slow-building tension over frequent bloodletting and mayhem. You have to wait for "The House of the Devil" to deliver on its promises -- but when it does, holy crap. I know that isn't a very scholarly analysis, but seriously. Holy crap.

The film is set in the early 1980s, apparently, with appropriately synthesized rock on the soundtrack and lots of freeze-frames in the opening credits. Our perky young heroine, Samantha (Jocelin Donahue), is a college student who's sick of living in the dorms and is preparing to move into an apartment with her friend Megan (Greta Gerwig). Eager to earn some money to facilitate the move, Samantha responds to a flier posted on a campus bulletin board looking for a babysitter. Rather suspiciously (to me, anyway), the flier is blank except for a phone number and the words "BABYSITTER WANTED."

The clients are the Ulmans -- Mr. Ulman (Tom Noonan) is a tall, gentle-voiced man who uses a walking stick; his wife (Mary Woronov) is old-school sophisticated, a woman whose evening wear requires fur. Samantha learns when she arrives at the house -- a huge old isolated place, I needn't tell you -- that the babysitting duties will be slightly different from the norm, but it's not a deal-breaker. And the Ulmans are offering a lot of money.

If there's a thin line between confidence and arrogance, Ti West straddles it. Not unlike many of the characteristics ascribed to his films, however, that's a compliment rather than a criticism: his sense of self-worth as a filmmaker is predicated on personal responsibility, and because he participates in the writing, directing and editing of his films (among other duties), he is eager to take the credit, or blame, for the end result, which is why he's insistent – or, as he admits, "a little difficult" – about the fact that he wants what makes it to the screen to be his vision rather than the result of test-marketing or some other form of studio interference.

The House of the Devil is his latest film, and thankfully it arrives in theaters this week unimpeded by any such changes. Cinematical recently sat down with West at a Los Angeles press day for a short one-on-one discussion of the film, which follows a college sophomore (Jocelin Donahue) who gets more than she bargains for when a lucrative babysitting job turns into a night of abject terror. In addition to discussing the film's note-perfect recreation of 1980s horror conventions, not to mention period details, West talked about striking a balance between mundane boredom and mortifying terror, and finally, learning lessons even from lackluster filmmaking experiences.

Cinematical: How did this evolve, and how did you develop the aesthetic for House of the Devil? It's an incredibly faithful recreation of a 1980s horror movie.

You know it's October when there's not merely a multitude of horror films finding their way into theaters, but a full-fledged film festival of them to fill your appetite for flayed and filleted flesh. The eight-year-old Screamfest LA starts Friday, October 16 with a screening of The Tournament and runs through October 25; in addition to offering some 20 feature films, three shorts programs and an awards dinner, horror fans will get an opportunity to see upcoming theatrical releases ahead of time, and maybe even hobnob with a few of their favorite stars. All of the films are being screened in the heart of Hollywood at Grauman's Chinese Theaters.

While we'll be covering more of the festival as it progresses, check out a couple of the must-see movies that are screening in its first few days:

The House of the Devil is a great name for a movie. It hearkens back to the days of grindhouse horror, when a film's title and its trailer told you basically everything you needed to know. Yet it's different from those movies, too, in that it prefers slow-building tension over frequent bloodletting and mayhem. You have to wait for "The House of the Devil" to deliver on its promises -- but when it does, holy crap. I know that isn't a very scholarly analysis, but seriously. Holy crap.

The film is set in the early 1980s, apparently, with appropriately synthesized rock on the soundtrack and lots of freeze-frames in the opening credits. Our perky young heroine, Samantha (Jocelin Donahue), is a college student who's sick of living in the dorms and is preparing to move into an apartment with her friend Megan (Greta Gerwig). Eager to earn some money to facilitate the move, Samantha responds to a flier posted on a campus bulletin board looking for a babysitter. Rather suspiciously (to me, anyway), the flier is blank except for a phone number and the words "BABYSITTER WANTED."

The clients are the Ulmans -- Mr. Ulman (Tom Noonan) is a tall, gentle-voiced man who uses a walking stick; his wife (Mary Woronov) is old-school sophisticated, a woman whose evening wear requires fur. Samantha learns when she arrives at the house -- a huge old isolated place, I needn't tell you -- that the babysitting duties will be slightly different from the norm, but it's not a deal-breaker. And the Ulmans are offering a lot of money.

With the Tribeca Film Festival now underway, one would expect indie filmmaker Ti West to be all kinds of happy. His latest, The House of the Devil, is having its world premiere there -- plus the guy recently finished work on Cabin Fever 2. So what's the problem? Well, according to a rather fine interview between West and Spout's Karina Longworth, Ti is irritated that his producers have trimmed his movie down by a few scenes.

Click right here for the full piece (which also offers some interesting tidbits regarding the long-gestating Cabin Fever 2), but the gist of the conflict seems to be this: The House of the Devil, in its Tribeca incarnation, is missing a few scenes that the director happens to think are important. Having already seen West's 'preferred' version, I can offer the opinion that ... yes, the guy has a very good point. It's no secret at this point, especially if you've seen West's earlier flicks (The Roost and Trigger Man), that The House of the Devil is what we call a "seriously slow burn." You could trim SIX scenes from the flick and it'll still be a deliberately-paced and, ok, slow film. Trimming two scenes from this movie "for pacing" is like removing ten M&Ms from a giant bag "for dieters."

I know, it's been a while since I've written one of these gore-soaked missives, but the upside to that is ... we have a lot to talk about! And since I wrote this during a lazy Sunday (happy belated holidays, btw) I figure it's time to break out the candy-coated bullet points! Let's start out with a freaky fistful of upcoming DVD releases:

Currently strewn across shelves are Donkey Punch and Vinyan, two festival-heavy horror films that couldn't possibly be more different. One's about venal young jerks, and the other is about heartbroken (but stupid) parents. Really bad things happen to all of them.

This Tuesday we're getting the old-school-style monster movie Splinter, which is really quite good. If you like prickly monsters, that is. On the same day ... whoa. It looks like someone actually bothered to exhume flicks like Repossessed, Slaughter High, and My Best Friend Is a Vampire. That sound you just heard was my Netflix queue getting fatter.

Come the 21st we get J.T. Petty's The Burrowers, which played (and played well) at last year's Fantastic Fest, and Robert Hall's Laid to Rest, which is sort of like a non-snarky slasher throwback with a hint of Phantasm-style weirdness. Couldn't find a stranger double feature than these two, believe me.

And mark your calendars, gore-lovers, for April 28, because that's when Martyrs finally hits R1 DVD. According to the UK poster, Scoot Weinberg says it "makes Saw look like Sesame Street," which is one of the most shameless blurbs I've ever heard. Even if the guy is correct, brilliant, and really handsome. (Trust me, this is one rough horror movie.) Also on this Tuesday we'll get the unofficial Donnie Darko sequel, and a movie starring Amber Benson called One-Eyed Monster. I leave the jokes to you fine folks.

Last year I spent a few weeks in London (Croydon, actually) at the home of a hardcore horror freak named Paul McEvoy. And since Paul is a co-founder and programmer for UK FrightFest, well, let's just say I had a whole bunch of horror flick festival screeners to pick through. It was awesome. One of those discs had the words FRITT VILT scrawled across it, and I didn't even know what language that was. Turns out it was Norwegian and the flick's English title is Cold Prey. Despite the fact that, plot-wise, it's a pretty conventional slasher flick, I quite liked Fritt Vilt, and I was pleased to learn that the sequel is on the way. Anchor Bay will be releasing the original, and you can check out the trailer and website right here.

Looks like After Dark Horrorfest decided to share their newest posters with a few different horror sites. Check out some of 'em at Bloody-D, two more at Shock, and another at Dread Central.

They had a swanky little booth at San Diego Comic Con, and now they've given Dread a new (nasty) clip for your approval. The flick is called Laid to Rest, and I'm certainly looking forward to it. Here's the official site, and yes, you should expect more gore: Director Rob Hall runs a make-up / FX house called Almost Human, and it looks like his team worked overtime on this flick.

Ti West has a new one called The House of the Devil. Early info and promo poster right here. Also at BD, a set report from the Friday the 13th remake.

Wanna watch The Midnight Meat Train right now? Online? For free? Cool. Click here. Curious about when the hell you can see Trick 'r Treat already? Nobody has an answer, but Ryan Rotten delivers a good rant anyway. Anyone out there still interested in the Creepshow franchise after the monumental crap-heap that was Creepshow 3? If so, check out the details on Creepshow: Raw right here and here.

Toronto After Dark has announced their winners, and of course top prize goes to Let the Right One In. Full details over at Twitchfilm. And then check out a free clip from the film right here.