The House of the Devil

Meticulously built suspense. We are no longer accustomed to such pure horror these days (paranormal activities are impressive here, but they’re just trickery). This film puts flicks like House and The Amityville Horror to shame and pays tribute to a historical stage of the genre in its flawlessly depicted traces of the ’80s. It’s just a shame about the ending, the lead-up to which is so focused and with so many rising viewer expectations that it is unable to fulfil, let alone exceed. (05.12.2011)

This is the kind of stuff I can really love every now and again! A fantastic recreation of the atmospheric occult horror movies from the turn of the 1970s and 80s; from the music, through the credits, to certain nice screenplay tropes (What does the heroine do in a key moment? Yes,… – I don’t want to spoil it). If you’re used to modern horror with a cheap jump-scare every five minutes to keep your attention, this film will be hell, in the good and bad sense of the word – it depends on how you take it. The atmosphere is built with long shots of the heroine slowly walking through an empty cottage, with nothing but oppressive music and a weird noise here and there – and no jump-scares. Some people will fall asleep with this (most viewers, I think), but others will feel as tense as a violin string. Given the rating, which group I belong to is obvious. The more viewer friendly and action packed last fifteen minutes are fairly over the top in a nice way, but they don’t surpass the atmospheric inferno of the second act. (31.10.2009)

It is such a strange horror that can completely knock you out with its stylization, or leave you cold and you will watch it simply because it is a relatively original horror. There are silent moments, but there are good ideas here that overall create a peculiar image that will certainly not leave you indifferent. (11.12.2014)