Ti West's homage to the trashy occult-horror films of the early '80s requires something rarely asked of contemporary horror-film audiences: patience. With period-perfect production design and a brilliant sense of timing, West slowly ratchets up the suspense in this tidy amalgam of familiar plot elements (a plucky coed takes a babysitting gig in a creepy house during a lunar eclipse; Satanic mayhem ensues) to nearly unbearable levels. Although you can see everything coming from several miles off (the title says it all), and even if the film can't fully deliver on the devilish climax it so skillfully builds up to, The House of the Devil is still a thing of beauty — and terror.