The House of the Devil (2009) Dir: Ti West

Skillful and intelligent throwback to prime late seventies and early eighties horror, this is almost perfect.

The plot:
A student at college is desperately sort of money, and worried she will not be able to pay her next rent. In sheer desperation, she applies for a babysitting position but, when she arrives at the house, is told that she will not be babysitting a child, but an old woman. Dubious, her need for cash over-rides her understandable reluctance. Left alone with the old woman on the night of an eclipse, things begin to take a turn for the sinister as the lunar eclipse approaches....

Beautifully shot, with strong performances from lead Jocelin Donahue and, in particular, the always creepy Tom 'Cain' Noonan, this is retro to the point of plagiarism, and that's no bad thing at all.
The atmosphere right from the off is eerie, and this only builds as the movie progresses, though one criticism is it takes a hell of a long time to reach the pay-off but, when it arrives, it is more than worth the wait.
One point taken off for a spoiler within the opening credits of the film itself - the write-up that appears on screen at the start kind of gives the game away about what is actually happening in the house and erodes some of the mystery, which is a shame - this is nevertheless a fine example, in this era of bland Hollywood horror that is about as frightening as candy floss, of how to make a solid, edgy, damned scary film.
Liked it.

4 out of 5

The Omen (2006) Dir: John Moore

You know, I really expected to hate this.
I anticipated that, shortly after viewing, my body would erupt in blisters, searingly painful, dripping greenish yellow pus before my entire being began to shut down, tongue swelling, internal organs failing as I fell into anaphylactic shock, an allergic reaction so severe it would bring to an end my pointless, meaningless time on this unforgiving, cruel planet.
But no such luck, I'm afraid.
Instead, I found myself to be nothing but entertained.
As if you don't already know it, here's the plot: An up and coming politician, Robert Thorn, is traumatised when his wife miscarries and opts to replace the child with that of another woman who died during delivery, not telling his wife of his act. Sweep forward several years and Thorn is now American Ambassador to Great Britain.
A priest pays Thorn a visit (the always magnificent Pete Postlethwaite) and tries to convince him that his son is not what he seems, that he is in fact The Antichrist. Thorn sends him on his way but, slowly, events begin to fall into place that suggest that the priest was not a raving lunatic and that maybe, just maybe, The Fallen One is ready to walk the Earth once more.
As anyone who has read previous reviews will know, I am fairly savage when it comes to modern horror, particularly remakes of genuine classics as, for the most part, they are disastrous affairs.
Here we have something a little different, however.
A remake that takes no liberties, that stays massively faithful to the source material, not meddling, not trying to mend something that wasn't broken in the first place, instead intent only on modernising, on bringing a cracking good movie idea to a new audience.
Whilst there are arguments, and sound ones, against the need for updating as anyone with an ounce of intelligence and taste can 'cope' with a movie that is, after all, not yet thirty five years old - Christ, I've got blisters on my feet older than that - but it is an unfortunate fact that, to many, anything pre 1990 is already vintage, already old fashioned and, therefore, off the radar.
A dimwitted attitude that may be, but heh, I don't make the rules.
Whilst not perfect - Liev Schreiber is pretty bland as Thorn and the lack of the original score loses something in terms of atmosphere - this is still a respectful, well made remake of one of the most well known horror movies of the 70's.

4 out of 5

Rosemary's Baby (1968) Dir: Roman Polanski

Creepy and intense, vaguely Ssssatanic cult offering from that most notorious of tabloid baiting perverts, Roman Polanski, this is effectively chilling, though mystifying in its presence in the top 200 movies of all time, at least if those God Fearing Cretins over at IMDB are to be believed.
The plottage: TV and movie star Lothario Guy Woodhouse and his nymph like wife Rosemary move into a new dwelling in New Yoik, planning to embark on a life of unabashed married bliss. All goes well until Guy befriends the odd old neighbours from next door, a deliciously deviant elderly couple who couldn't be more Jewish if you stuck a Menorah up each of their arseholes and called them 'those Goldberg schmucks', soon after which Rosemary experiences a lucid dream involving much chanting, nudity, and beast like apparitions apparently impregnating her before, back in the real world, falling unexpectedly pregnant. Well, nosy neighbour Minnie insists on supplying her with vitamin drinks, and her doctor seems alarmingly unconcerned about the blistering pains she is suffering during her carriage.
Could it be the neighbours are a hideous coven of witches and warlocks and, horror of horror, could it be The AntiChrist himself (bend ye on worthless knee, puny mortals) she carries in her Earthly womb?
Well, could it?
Eh?
Polanksi delivers a supercharged miasma of twitchy, maternal nerves interwoven with some genuinely eerie atmospherics, as well as the occasional line of dialogue to freeze the blood:

"I dreamed someone was raping me. I think it was someone inhuman."

Fantastically unsettling, whether it deserves its repute as one of the best films ever made was a question I still could not answer even as the credits rolled.
Nevertheless, this is pretty damn riveting, so I'm puzzled as to why I find it odd that it's rated so highly.
Heh, maybe I'm a raging Anti-Semite and am yet to figure it out......