The criticallyacclaimed independent chiller The House of the Devil, now available on DVD and Blu-ray from Dark Sky Films/MPI Home Video (see Page 40 for review), marks the latest outing from multitalented multi-hyphenate Ti West, who wrote, edited and directed the film.
Set smack in the middle of the 1980s, The House of the Devil features Jocelin Donahue as Samantha Hughes, a lonely college student who takes a babysitting job to earn some quick cash for a downpayment on her first apartment.
Tom Noonan, who previously starred in West’s 2005 feature debut The Roost, and cult favorite Mary Woronov (Death Race 2000, Eating Raoul) portray Mr. and Mrs. Ulman, the enigmatic couple who procure Samantha’s services while they leave to observe a rare lunar eclipse taking place that evening.
There’s just one thing: They don’t have children. Instead, Samantha is to look after Mrs. Ulman’s invalid mother, whom she is told almost never leaves her room upstairs. Samantha is wary… until Mr. Ulman makes an offer too good to pass up.
And, as it turns out, too good to be true.
As the evening progresses, West methodically ratchets up the suspense quotient as Samantha slowly begins to realize that something is very wrong in this house and that she is in a great deal of peril.
Unlike many current chillers, The House of the Devil doesn’t send up the genre. It’s not played for laughs. Given the success of the Scream franchise, “it’s unavoidable in the post-modern horror film,” says West, which is one reason he wanted to make The House of the Dead straightforward, and almost a mystery more than a horror film.
“It’s important to take these movies seriously,” he observes. “The situations and characters are dead-serious.
The characters don’t know they’re in a movie.”
That didn’t prevent West from incorporating a few sly references. For example, might Mr. Ulman’s first name be Stuart, in a nod to Stephen King’s The Shining?
“I can’t go that far,” West laughs, “but it might be. It sure might be!” West’s first two features, The Roost and Trigger Man (2007), earned solid reviews and marked West as one of the fast-rising talents in the independent horror arena — and led to his getting the chance to co-write the story and direct the much-anticipated sequel to Eli Roth’s 2002 cult horror hit Cabin Fever.
Filmed in Wilmington (the first film was shot in the Piedmont Triad), West envisioned the film as a gory, gonzo high-school satire, in which the flesheating virus introduced in the first film turns the student body of an all-American high school into student bodies on what turns out to be an apocalyptic prom night.
At some point, however, disagreements began to set in, and West found himself in the midst of what are commonly referred to in Hollywood as “creative differences.”
Rather than aggravate the situation any further, West delivered his cut of the film (as he was obliged to), bid farewell, and took his salary to start production on The House of the Devil.
Meanwhile, Cabin Fever 2 (subtitled Spring Fever) languished for the better part of two years, during which time it was re-edited and certain scenes reshot. West essentially disowns the film.
“I don’t feel comfortable taking credit for it,” he says. “It’s the producer and the editor’s film, it really is. It was taken away and they started from scratch. If you like it, that’s great — but it’s not my movie. If you don’t like it and want to blame me, go ahead — but it’s still not my movie. I harbor no ill will… and I’m sure it wasn’t how [the producers] planned on it. Obviously, they had a different vision.”
Noting the lengthy post-production on Cabin Fever 2, “it wasn’t me,” West says. “I wasn’t the hold-up.”
Nevertheless, West does take some fond memories (as well as an understandable wariness) from the experience. “Making the movie was the best time ever. It was three of the greatest months of my life. I loved North Carolina and I had a great time.”
West is certain that the film will do just fine financially (a third installment is rumored to be in the works), and notes wryly: “Fifty years from now, it may be the film I’m most asked about.”
It’s clear in talking to West that he is deeply and personally involved in his work.
“I’d probably be more successful if I wasn’t!” he says with a laugh. “It’s hard. It’s in your DNA…I ask myself ‘If this is the last movie ever made, am I satisfied with it?’” With The House of the Devil, “I accomplished everything I wanted to.”
There was some debate with the producers when the film was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. West admits that, after the Cabin Fever 2 contretemps, he was “incredibly protective” of this film.
“It’s an uphill battle to plead your case,” he explains, “but in the end it worked out just fine.”
West has a number of upcoming projects in development, some horror and some not. “I want to do all kinds of films,” he says. “I have tons of stuff I want to do.”
