I went in with low expectations, believing this movie to be yet another soulless contemporary exploitation full of stingers, cheap scares, and aggravating characters. To my surprise, it's actually the (nearly) perfect antidote to the mostly dreadful horror movies we've been getting since the turn of the century. The problem with horror is that it's often so cheap to make that novice (and mostly talentless) filmmakers try to enter the movie industry via this genre and the market has been flooded with so much garbage. It's always been like this, but since the advent of digital video and streaming it's went from bad to worse.
THOTD is no such movie. It's a genuine horror, shot on 16mm, that feels real, with an unsettling atmosphere and a rising tension. Writer/director Ti West should not be conflated with wannabes, he knows how to make a movie.
College girl Samantha is keen on moving out of the dorm room she shares with a deadbeat roommate and into her own home with best friend Megan (Greta Gerwig). A babysitting job during the night of a lunar eclipse gives her the opportunity to make the first month's rent and get on her feet, but the client, Mr. Ullman, is an unusually edgy and apologetic man (Tom Noonan, best known as Dollarhyde in Manhunter or as Caine in RoboCop 2) who has trouble communicating with Samantha as well as not being completely honest. Once she arrives at his gloomy mansion in the middle of nowhere she is not to look after a child, but to act as peace of mind for the unseen old mother upstairs. Initially hesitant and suspicious, Samantha ups her fee to $400 and agrees.
Once alone, she slowly realizes that the mask Mr. Ullman and his wife put on for her is completely fake and that something very wrong is going on. This is the movie's best strength and it is at its most effective when we're drawn into this sinister plot of something hidden that is about to be revealed, lending a morbid tease to every scene. Set in 1983, the cinematography and style reflect the period, and the minimalist, less-is-more approach is far more intriguing than any of its lesser counterparts.
I was let down by the ending, which is why I can't give it the 8/10 it would have deserved had it been just a tiny bit more satisfying. It needed to end on a shock and a nihilistic note, but it went for fashionable ambiguity which deflated the tension building up to it.
Nonetheless, this is a notable horror movie that stands high above the vast majority and needs to be appreciated.
THOTD is no such movie. It's a genuine horror, shot on 16mm, that feels real, with an unsettling atmosphere and a rising tension. Writer/director Ti West should not be conflated with wannabes, he knows how to make a movie.
College girl Samantha is keen on moving out of the dorm room she shares with a deadbeat roommate and into her own home with best friend Megan (Greta Gerwig). A babysitting job during the night of a lunar eclipse gives her the opportunity to make the first month's rent and get on her feet, but the client, Mr. Ullman, is an unusually edgy and apologetic man (Tom Noonan, best known as Dollarhyde in Manhunter or as Caine in RoboCop 2) who has trouble communicating with Samantha as well as not being completely honest. Once she arrives at his gloomy mansion in the middle of nowhere she is not to look after a child, but to act as peace of mind for the unseen old mother upstairs. Initially hesitant and suspicious, Samantha ups her fee to $400 and agrees.
Once alone, she slowly realizes that the mask Mr. Ullman and his wife put on for her is completely fake and that something very wrong is going on. This is the movie's best strength and it is at its most effective when we're drawn into this sinister plot of something hidden that is about to be revealed, lending a morbid tease to every scene. Set in 1983, the cinematography and style reflect the period, and the minimalist, less-is-more approach is far more intriguing than any of its lesser counterparts.
I was let down by the ending, which is why I can't give it the 8/10 it would have deserved had it been just a tiny bit more satisfying. It needed to end on a shock and a nihilistic note, but it went for fashionable ambiguity which deflated the tension building up to it.
Nonetheless, this is a notable horror movie that stands high above the vast majority and needs to be appreciated.