Thanks to all who participated in this giveaway. It was very interesting to read all your answers to who would be your celebrity babysitter for a night. I mentioned my babysitter would be Ellen Page who I think is super duper awesome. But check out the list below of who others picked to be their babysitter.
Oprah
Jean Claude Van Damme
Jamie Lee Curtis (The ultimate babysitter.)
Elvira
Werner Herzog
Emily Perkins
Joe Bob Briggs
Mila Kunis
Hulk Hogan
Julianne Moore
Linnea Quigley
Milla Jovovich
Jocelin Donahue
Quentin Tarantino
Christopher Lee
Vincent Cassel/Klaus Kinski
John Goodman
Falcor from The Neverending Story
John Waters
Edwige Fenech
Kurt Russell
Serj Tankian
Jeff "The Dude" Bridges
Alison Lohman
Elijah Wood
A bunch of hotties, respected directors and actors and a wrestler. Clearly, we value a good conversation over eye candy.
As for the film, I reviewed this film a while ago. I gave it 2 spinkicks. I kind of liked Babysitter Wanted a little bit better but I can't be to harsh with this flick. I mean Ti West created a solid throwback babysitter horror nostalgia flick and put it out in VHS form which is uber cool to say the least.
The odd history of how I came to get this House of the Devil VHS clamshell was that my former dot com company moved offices and left a pile of goodies for us employees to pick up. Somehow, the editors left this beauty of a prize. I swooped it up and figured a true horror fan would enjoy this instead of it being in the trash.
Like I said. this VHS clamshell collectable is pretty awesome. It's just the clamshell and the VHS tape inside. Nothing else. But it's pretty damn cool if you have a VCR (which I don't). I always say it's best to give to those who do (....have a VCR...really? You have one? Kudos)
Well without further ado and via a random drawing (I assign every entry a random number and use random.org to pick the number) The Winner of The Jaded Viewer Giveaway: The House of the Devil VHS is......
Murphy who picked Edwige Fenech as the babysitter.
Congrats Murphy!
Thanks to all who participated in this contest. I have a few more DVDs to giveaway including Fertile Ground, Savage County and Ferocious Planet.
I should be putting up another giveaway in a few days. So check back here in a few.
After a few weeks of voting, the most requested item for the giveaway was by far The House of the Devil VHS Collectable. It garnered 19 votes and I don't need any more time to make it the featured item in this jaded viewer giveaway.
I reviewed this film waaaaay back when. Babysitter meets the devil flick. I gave it 2 spinkicks. I kind of liked Babysitter Wanted a little bit better but I can't be to harsh with this flick. I mean Ti West created a solid throwback babysitter horror nostalgia flick and put it out in VHS form which is uber cool to say the least.
This VHS clamshell collectable is pretty awesome. It's just the clamshell and the VHS tape inside. Nothing else. But it's pretty damn cool if you have a VCR (which I don't). I always say it's best to give to those who do (....have a VCR...really? You have one? Kudos)
So what do you need to do to enter this giveaway? Simple. Leave your name and e-mail address and name a celebrity that you want to be your babysitter for one night.
I'll get it started and say I'd love my babysitter to be Ellen Page. (Ahhh you thought I'd go with the sexy bombshell nymph didn't you?) I figure me and Ellen would just chill, eat some popcorn and watch some Canadian horror. And you know plank around the house. I hear she loves the planking.
Simple right? At the end of August I'll randomly pick a name from all the entries and BOOM SHAKA LAKA, we got a winner. Well here's the trailer for The House of the Devil. Enter the giveaway via the comments!
It's very odd that this decade, the 2000s have all been a haven for the throwback, remake or homage movie. We get sentimental for different decades, the 70s and 80s we deem as the golden age sometimes. This very much is the case within horror.
I am not a child of the 70s, but I did watch the cinema of the time. When I first got into horror, I figured I should self-educate and watch the best of the best. The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, etc. And after watching all these movies, I never knew why people were so obsessed with the occult and the Satanic worship at the time.
But Ti West wants you to get reacquainted with that devil fear all over again. With The House of the Devil, he basically takes that slow burn, jump scare and evil Satanic worshipping frozen dinner and reheats it for you, complete with the side of gory red pudding. West does nothing new to this genre of film, but instead adds some gorehound delights and nostalgic 80s soundtrack to complete a good homage, nothing more and nothing less.
The House of the Devil is a throwback glimpse into a plodding pace that is all atmosphere based which eventually leads to an over the top, metal music cacophony of chaos ending. If you you remember these movies fondly, you'll love this movie. If you're a tween or were born in the 90s, this is a movie where may you spontaneously develop ADD.
I found myself caught in the middle. And I'll tell you why.
Boring Plot-O-Matic
In the 1980s, college student Samantha Hughes takes a strange babysitting job that coincides with a full lunar eclipse. She slowly realizes her clients harbor a terrifying secret; they plan to use her in a satanic ritual. Awesome Review-O-Matic
Let's just start off with what I liked. I loved the vintage 80s opening credits, from the fonts to the freeze frame credit sequences. West spares no expense to get you back into acid washed jeans and Charlie's Angels hair. The soundtrack keeps this going with very montagey music that blends into the film. As Sam blasts her oversized Walkman, we hear music from new wave to metal (thank the Gods of Fire for that). Later, we even get a gratuitous 80s montage set to "One Thing Leads to Another" by The Fixx. It's all these things that gave me a happy because nostalgia is an intoxicating drug for any movie fan.
Here is where we go grey. Sam (Jocelin Donahue) is that everyday poor, struggling college student. She's got a horny, slobby roommate which is the reason she decides to move off campus. She soon takes a babysitting job located in backwoods, USA and she and her friend Megan are off to meet the lovely but ultimately evil Mr. and Mrs. Ulman.
Act 1 is all set up as we play meet and greet with our heroine Sam. Donahue looks like a cloned Danielle Harris. West allows us to see her uninteresting life in the most aggravating of ways. Scenes of watching Sam walk from place to place, with juxtaposition closeup shots of a clock tower followed by more long walks and scary payphones. I have totally forgotten how yawny boring these long shots and scenes of nothing can be. (Can somebody tell me if this is how these 70s/80s Satanic movies were filmed back then? I honestly don't remember. But I get the feeling West makes sure we get the same feel as those movies. The mega slow burn is in effect. You better drink a Red Bull.)
Act 2 begins when Sam decides to take the babysitting job which turns out to be not a babysitting job. Mr Ulman (Tom Noonan, who does a decent job as the creepy undertaker-like guy) explains the rules and coerces her with more money.
We the viewer get painstakingly a collection of scenes of Sam snooping all over the house. Some scenes (especially shots of her through a window are glorious throwaway shots of old). But more so, we get Sam being scared of her friend's answering machine (complete with that 80s pretend voice message), Sam scared of the pizza guy, Sam scared of the bathroom, Sam scared of the creepy attic. West spares no expense who amp up the bass to get you to jump out of your seat. Think of the "Don't!" trailer and this sums up Act 2.
Check out an example of the slow burn suspense in this clip below.
Act 3 which takes about an hour and 10 minutes to get to is filled with bloody uber chaos. Motive is explained by our diabolical couple and their homicidal son tries to go, well homicidal on Sam. Satanic rituals are in effect with that Satanic star, that Satanic animal skull and that Satanic blood drinking and human sacrifices. In all these movies, they end one of two ways. Somebody gets shot or jumps off the roof of the house.
Like I said before, West throws in more gore and splatter than these movies usually have. Gore-ipedia includes a very stellar gunshot to the face, ocular trauma, sliced throats and a headshot. It's top notch FX and I couldn't help but applaud the effort.
However, at the end of the day the movie is a wicked slow slow slow burn. It takes so long to get to the nitty gritty that no Red Bulls were helping to keep me awake. I understand it's suppose to be this way but Satanic and occult movies are my weakest link within horror and I'll admit, I do not like style over substance. The House of the Devil is filled with these cliches of BOO! scares and unseen carnage. Though as an older horror fan, I am not easily scared as I use to be and as the jaded viewer, I demand to see something substantial and not the repackaged same old same old. That's not to say the film isn't effective in what it was trying to do. Kudos to West and the entire cast for pulling off an impressive homage to the girl meets devil genre. It's brilliant in bringing back that longing for a movie you'd see at 2am on Channel 11 (WPIX in NYC).
So with that, it's a touch of grey for The House of the Devil. It's got its moments and it's got its long moments. Like a magic eye painting, you'll be waiting for the blurry mess of color to turn into a sailboat. Some people will focus and see the sailboat. Others, like myself wait for hours for that damn sailboat. Hell, sometimes you don't see a sailboat at all.
Nude-ipedia
Nada. These aren't the droids you're looking for.
WTF moment Gunshot to the face. Didn't see that coming.
The Jaded Viewer's Final Prognosis
Going back on the metaphor I mentioned before, The House of the Devil is a reheated frozen dinner. You've eaten it before and it pretty much tastes the same. But sometimes, if you haven't had that same meal in a while, it tastes a little better. Right? Know what I mean?
The House of the Devil comes out on October 30th in a limited release. You can actually watch it on Amazon.com Video In Demand right now.
