Saturday, January 15, 2011

Saturday Music wherein One Thing Can Lead to Another

This past SHOCKtober, THE FUTURIST! watched a plethora of horror, thriller and mystery movies; it happens to be his usual Autumnal creepy custom. One of the films he watched was HOUSE OF THE DEVIL directed by Ti West. It was a rather low budget movie with no one of impressive star wattage ... maybe just ET Mom Dee Wallace Stone, creepy Tom Noonan and cult favorite Mary Woronov. Oh, there was also the currently rising indie film actress Greta Gerwig in a small, but memorable turn. HOUSE OF THE DEVIL moved at a snail's pace until it's final half hour. This is not a bad thing. No, not at all. It created a fantastic mood of tension and tingles. The protagonist is a young college girl named Samantha who needs to be more liberated from the confines of her shared dorm room. She needs to find an apartment which means needing money. This leads to her inquiring about a "baby sitting" job at a strange Victorian house way way way out in the woods. It's far from her usual haunts and far away from making the viewer comfortable. Mr.West directs this film in the style of a late 70s/early 80s horror picture. This style includes camera moves, music and credit sequences reminiscent of that cinematic time. Samantha has one of those feathered Charlie Angels hair-dos and we see early 80s automobiles. The opening credit shots freeze frame as big yellow font spell out the cast and crew and remind us of the cinema of our not so distant past ... well, it is 2011, so it was some time ago now.

THE FUTURIST! felt he had seen this type of film before and was trying to guess what was going to happen. Again .. this is not a bad thing, because HOUSE OF THE DEVIL never bored him or made him think to himself, "Yeah yeah ... of course that was going to happen." The film always seemed fresh and surprising. However, the movie's final ending destination disappointed him and left him not so happy, but the ride was worth the sights along the way.

One moment that pleased THE FUTURIST! was the scene below. You will watch as Samantha tries to fill the boredom of her baby sitting job with a little music from her Walkman. (Remember those things?) She bops about the house investigating rooms and opening doors to basement stairs trying to feel relaxed and not dull or ill at ease. This scene provided THE FUTURIST! with that great moment of odd comfort and familiarity that fools you into feeling ... safe? No. Not safe. Not safe at all. Shortly after this, the pixie-like sweet Samantha will feel no comfort at all. One thing CAN lead to another ... a very bad thing.

In the mean time, try to feel relaxed and ...

Listen:


ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER
performed by The Fixx
diegetically used in a scene from HOUSE OF THE DEVIL (2009)

2 comments:

Dara said...

That's my girl. Would like to see this.

THE FUTURIST! said...

You finally got to see your girl in action. She bops about very nicely. Please do see this and share your thoughts.