Dodgy screen caps, I'm the first to admit, but I felt the need to celebrate this winning little film (which I watched on demand rather than disc, hence my hovering, digital shaky-hand and the luminous fuzz it apprehended.)
With a clear love for early-80s mid-budget horror,
House of the Devil gets high marks for blending that passion with a more modern,
Haute Tension-style survival-horror method. The film pulls taut slowly, and with unexpected subtlety. The characters and cast are a wonder, with nonchalant killer
AJ Bowen pretty much stealing the film (as he did
with The Signal), surrounded by intense, meaningful performances from the always-unsettling
Tom Noonan and the great
Mary Woronov.
House of the Devil was made with obvious care by people who love old horror films (and vintage title sequences.) Though the action drags in a few spots, that's almost part of the fun, and the last 20 minutes are payoff galore!
Tattoo inspiration; Vancouver Island.
Sign on Granville St. Bridge rubs it in. Vancouver, BC.
Like an ever-flowing stream.
Stream detail
Toothpicks for the Titans
Vancouver Island—land of 1,000 Kampfar album covers.
Part van, part semi—and it's for sale!
Never a problem, eh.
Canadian medieval barber dental extraction tools; still used today. Alberni Valley Museum.
Old tube tester; reminded me of PKD's novel Voices From the Street. Alberni Valley Museum.
Canadian courtesy at perhaps its most perverse.
Shoes. Port Alberni, Vancouver Island, BC.
Hands missing, a grammarian's nightmare—but it IS boobie time!
I noticed William B. Davis, aka Cancer Man, waiting at the boarding gate at EWK. At first I thought he was George Plimpton, until I remembered Plimpton was dead. Then, he boarded my plane in executive class. The very friendly Air Canada flight attendants helped me get his autograph.
Wednesday night's horrorcast, #21, danced more with the cosmic than the twenty Castle broadcasts that preceded it. This was no doubt due to the mystical date of Nov. 11, as well as the presence of Ghost Moth, whose live performance made me shudder—at the windows they opened—those to other worlds, other dimensions.
Ghost Moth, the duo of Daniel Carter and Todd Pendu, live Wednesday night on My Castle of Quiet.
I'm easily talked into that one, SiHV. Just ask my almost-ex wife; apparently, what I "wilt" is all that I do. Then my best pal comes back from N'awlins with a human knuckle bone for me. With an inner circle like that, I may be organizing a long-table feast with my enemies. HA HA!
