In recent years, Wilmington, Delaware born director & writer Ti West has become one of the most notable/ known horror filmmakers of today. But his career started back in the early 2000s with his first feature film being The House Of The Devil- an early 80s set slow-burn blend of creepy house horror, dread-filled thriller, and jarring satanic terror. It’s a skilful shot and moodily tooled debut film, which managed to recreate the late 70s early 80s horror vibe perfectly, adding in darts of gore and shocking horror. I’ve seen, and largely enjoyed all of Mr West’s cinematic output, but The House of the Devil still stands as his masterpiece, as it perfectly builds its mood & tone, with some general moments of fright/ intense shock appearing later on in the film. So it is wonderful to see here a new boxset from the folks at Second Sight- taking in a great selection of on-disc extras, a seventy-page booklet with new writing about the film, colour art cards, and a hard case slipcase.

The House Of The Devil was released in the year 2009, though it’s set in the year 1983. It was filmed in several locations around Connecticut, with the main house location being a house in Lakeville, which was built in the year 1820. The picture was shot in the stark/ clear wintertime, in 16mm, with the use of typical 70’s/ 80’s filming tropes such as zooms, freeze frames, and opening/ closing credits.

The one-hour and thirty-five-minute film opens with a tangible sense of brooding melancholy, as our lead character, Samantha (Jocelin Donahue), is sitting in a grey daylight-lit kitchen, turned away from the camera, as skeletal/ uneasy piano music plays. She turns around & we find out she is viewing an apartment- we find out soon enough she is a college student, and she wants to move out of her present shared room on campus- where he roommate is constantly having sex, and leaving the room untidy.

With her skinny jeans, trainers, plaid shirt, woolly hat, and Walkman, Samantha is your typical 80s girl next door, who largely acts in a believable, if at times slightly naïve manner. On campus, she notices a flyer for a babysitter, and as she needs to get money quickly. She rings up the number, and after a few missed calls, she speaks to Mr Ulman- played in wonderfully creepy unease by Tom Noonan (Manhunter, Robocop 2)- she agrees to do the babysitting, for a far too generous $100.00 for four hours' work.

She gets her blond feathered hair friend Megan(Greta Gerwig) to drive her to the Ulman house. As things turn from slightly uneasy, to very much dread-soaked, punctuated with moments of jarring scares/ gore.

I won’t detail the plot anymore, so as not to ruin the plot's unfolding. The house itself is filmed with a wonderful sense of uneasy mystery, with  West very skillfully creating a highly tangible feeling of dead and uneasy, and later in the film, we kick into full-on horror/ terror cinema.

The small cast is excellent, as mentioned, Donahue makes for a believable pre-twenties every girl. Noonan is creepily charming, nervous, manipulative, and at points very chilling. Turning up as his wife, we have cult actress Mary Woronov( Death Race 2000, Eating Raoul, Blood Theatre), who again does a great job of being subtly creepy.

Soundtrack-wise, we get a mix of the already mentioned stark & skeletal piano tones, moments of rising strings, and early 80’s mimic fare, which blends new wave, rock, etc.

I must have seen The House Of The Devil fifteen plus times over the years, and it still maintains its feeling of authentic 80’s vibes, effectively building foreboding, with some still get-me jumps, and moments of effective gore. The film still stands as one of the great horror films of the 2000s.

Moving onto the Blu-ray itself, we get a good selection of extras- most of these are new. So, on the new side of things, we have the following: The Right Vibe (19.00) interview with director Ti West. He talks about how some of his key memories of the 1980s were centred around babysitters & satanic panic- so it made sense to blend these two together. We find out the film had a budget of one million dollars, and this largely went on buying the film stock & getting the locations looking just right in their period setting. He talks about it being freezing in the house, and that he shot three weeks straight doing nights. We find out the scene he was most nervous about was the dance scene.  He talks about how Woronov had turned down roles in his earlier shorts, and initially turned down the role in House Of The Devil- but he kept pushing/ went around to see her, and she finally agreed. Satanic Panic (17.17) interview with lead actress Jocelin Donahue. She begins by talking at the time of the film, she was applying for Michael Bay films, so when the picture to hand was offered to her, it was something different. She talks about finding Ti been down-to-earth/ easy to talk to. She did rehearse lines with some of her co-stars, but with Noonan and Woronov- they met when they did their scenes. She discusses how she grew up in Connecticut, and that few of the locations she was familiar with. Slowing Down is Death (25.40) interview with actor AJ Bowen. A Level of Ambition( 23.44) interview with Producer Peter Phok. He talks about how they first met as film students. How MPI Media funded the project, with the other notable film they were involved with being Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer. We find out the film was shot in just nineteen days, and it was filmed in chronological order.  An Enduring Title (27.48) interview with producer Larry Fessenden. He talks about how his company Glass Eye Pix came about in the 80s- first for making his own projects, but later becoming a community of filmmakers. He discusses the two shots Ti & he did before House Of The Devil- The Roost and Trigger Men. And how his main focus on House…was making calls/. Getting the finance in place. It All Feels Appropriate (13.34 ) interview with Director of Photography Eliot Rockett. Hiding the Seams ( 15.35)  interview with composer Jeff Grace. He opens by talking about his first impression of Ti, and how he spoke a million miles a minute. He talks about how the director doesn’t use temp music, which is initially a bit more work, but more creative things come out of it. We find out two soundtracks that Ti wanted Jeff to use a reference for the film were The Changeling & Rosemary’s Baby. Writing Through Sound (24.24) interview with sound designer Graham Reznick. So, a great selection of most interesting interviews.

On the archive side, we have two commentary tracks- one with Ti West & actress Jocelin Donahue, and the other with Ti West, producers Larry Fessenden and Peter Phok, and sound designer Graham Reznick. This Night Changes Everything: The Making of The House of the Devil (24.16) In The House of the Devil (20.23) Deleted scenes( 6.41).

The set comes with seventy pages perfect-bound A5 booklet. This takes in four new articles about the film. First, up we have ‘There’s a lot of weirdos Out There’ by film critic/ author- this runs at nine and a half pages. It goes from talking about the rise of satanic panic and how it’s woven into the film. Moving on to discuss the film's influences, its period detail, its sound design, and how it links into other examples of satanic cinema. Next is ‘Desperate For Money and Destined For Danger’ by author/ podcaster Ariel Powers-Schaub- this is nine pages long. This ties the film into economic recessions and generally financial issues- this, I’d say, was the most worthy of the four pieces here, as it looks at the film from an interesting angle, with the whole piece being most readable. We have ‘What Awaits The Babysitter’ by writer/ genre critic- this is nine and a half pages. This looks at the babysitter-in-peril genre, and the urban legend connected to it. Before looking at how the film ties into it. Lastly, we have ‘Curiosity Killed the Babysitter’ by writer/ author Martyn Conterio- this runs at eight and a half pages. This looks at the film's influences, and in particular, how it links to the French fairy tale Blue Beard. Throughout the booklet, we have stills/ art from the film, with eight pages in the middle of the making of pictures.

The set comes with five A5-sized art cards, with the whole coming in a ridge slip case. All in a very nicely put-together and presented set.

In finishing this new boxset does exactly what any great film-based boxset should. It enhances, uncovers new details, and wonderfully celebrates what a classic House Of The Devil is. Another truly splendid job from the folks at Second Sight.