House of the Devil, The

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

It is a fine little old-school thriller.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

There's wit but never a wink in this smartly shot production, which pays homage to the 1980s without fetishizing the era.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

If nothing else, Ti West’s retro “Satan rules!” thriller The House Of The Devil gets the look and tone of early-’80s horror schlock exactly right.

Los Angeles Times Andy Klein

The buildup is undeniably effective; for most of the movie, it provides the same kind of thrills as "Paranormal Activity," if somewhat less brilliantly.

Time Out New York Keith Uhlich

West is far more adept at and interested in sustaining an unrelentingly ominous mood than in executing the genre-required spook shocks.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

A clever picture, and something of a novelty -- it's not going to change the face or direction of horror filmmaking in any drastic way. But it's fun to watch something that's so obviously made with love.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Mr. West shows a real gift for the genre, particularly in his ability to generate dread with pinpricks rather than bludgeoning shocks, something even veterans twice his age have difficulty achieving. After years of vivisectionist splatter, here is a horror movie with real shivers.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

This isn't just a good throwback satanic thriller - it looks as if it was made during the era of satanist paranoia.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

An almost fetishistic re-creation of a horror-suspense movie from around 1978.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The film may provide an introduction for some audience members to the Hitchcockian definition of suspense: It's the anticipation, not the happening, that's the fun.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

In keeping with his models, West is concerned with not suspense exactly but the ritual withholding and ultimate lavishing of bloody chaos.

Arizona Republic Bill Goodykoontz

Writer and director Ti West accesses all the hot buttons for fans of the genre in a manner that doesn't make fun of it (and its followers) in a "Scary Movie" way, but instead treats it with the appropriate amount of respect. (Key word: appropriate.)

Village Voice Nick Pinkerton

Pumping the audience with inhale-exhale zooms and out-of-the-way close-ups, director Ti West's ratcheting of suspense in this alone-in-an-empty-house tale is proficient, if not psychologically piercing, in the best "Let's Scare Jessica to Death" fashion.

Variety Peter Debruge

Call it the best '80s babysitter-in-peril movie never made. The House of the Devil delivers about as much as one could reasonably hope from the not-quite-alone-in-the-house category, with the bonus of authentically re-creating the low-budget look and feel of that era's classic horror entries.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

By far the freakiest and most unnerving shocker in theatres this season.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Although the payoff is creepy, it takes a little too long to arrive -- and when it does, it's about as worn-out as the movie's title.

USA Today Claudia Puig

The result can be palpably unnerving.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

This is the perfect illustration of the banality of most scare movies.