Ti West really impressed me with his first feature The Roost and I’ve faithfully followed his career since.
His latest effort sees Jocelin Donahue star as Samantha, a young college student who tires of sharing with her roommate and decides she needs her own space. She finds the place of her dreams but has major financial woes. When she applies for a babysitting job and gets it, things seem to be on the up that is until she arrives at the house and discovers there’s no baby. The mysterious Mr. Ulman (the eerily effective Tom Noonan) begs Samantha to stay stating that he actually needs someone to look after his elderly mother-in-law and lures her in with a hefty wad of cash. As the night progresses, Samantha finds out why the Ulman’s really needed her.
This film is so 80s it’s unreal! Many people have tried to recreate the genre’s gory glory days but none have achieved it so faithfully. The costumes, locations and set decoration really bring the decade that taste forgot back to life.
The cast are really solid her. Donahue’s Samantha is likeable and believable-a real product of her environment. Greta Gerwig is hilarious as Megan! She’s that character you wanted to be friends with and loved in 80s slahsers. Then we have Dee Wallace and Mary Woronov who couldn’t fail to entertain if they were simply reading phone directories to their audience.
The film is creepy and in places violent and gory, but it’s never excessively so. It takes it’s time to tell it’s story and makes no apologies for it. I personally felt it did move too slowly after a while, but then I’m sure I would’ve complained if it started moving too fast (a la Midnight Movie), so you can’t please everyone all of the time.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Ti West has turned in another great piece of work here that has already made many horror fans sit up and take note of the next King of horror.
