Jocelin Donahue ('The House of the Devil', 'The Burrowers')

Jocelin Donahue is a thoughtful actress. Thoughtful films would be her genre: The former NYU Sociology-History undergrad has starred in period pieces like The Burrowers, a horror-western that was as much about settling the wilderness of the West as about what beasts lurk beneath that harsh terrain. She has been in abstracted short films like The Masquerade and Express 831. Sitting with me in a room at the Four Seasons, draped in the catalog-sharp attire that befits her past career as a model, Jocelin tells me she is drawn to acting because she is fascinated by the formation of identity.

We are here because of a film that radiates identity—Ti West’s The House of the Devil, which is storming the festival circuit from Sheffield, UK to Austin, Texas...

Fixated on the “Satanic Panic” of the early 80s, The House of the Devil devotedly follows the cinematic trends of that era. Its shots are brooding, its pacing is ponderous, it speaks with a soft voice about an era of feathered hair—of a time where terror was being linked to the world by only a rotary phone. It has a message, and at the center of that message is Jocelin, who gets so much long-take screen time that the film is practically her portrait.

Jocelin in 'House of the Devil'

Jocelin gets this. She wants a film that not only gives the audience an opportunity to think, but demands it. I ask her about what appeals to her in the horror genre, and she answers it by telling me what doesn’t appeal:

“I’m no fan of torture porn, the stuff that’s out there nowadays. We wanted to offer something different—a more cerebral film.”

Cerebral is a term that gets bandied about too much. It’s a NetFlix category. I ask her what other filmmaker’s work interests her.

“I like films with a message,” Jocelin explains readily. “That’s why I like working with a writer-director.”

Which writer-directors does she like?

“Paul Thomas Anderson. Gus Van Sant.” Jocelin includes Ti West in her list of filmmakers who have The Vision Thing. “Like Gus Van Sant, Ti lets a story unfold on its own; to take its time.”

Is there a place for such vision in horror films? Jocelin thinks so.

“I think audiences really do want something different from the torture porn out there—the Michael Bay stuff.”

more 'House of the Devil'

It seems there’s hope for her and the horror genre working things out after all. Does this mean she doesn’t turn her nose up at the title “Scream Queen”? Jocelin’s nose at least wrinkles, but she smiles.

“It is a pejorative,” she says. “But a lot of actresses have done good work as a Scream Queen. Jamie Lee Curtis for example.”

Jamie Lee comes to mind because Ti prescribed a DVD crash course in turn-of-the-80s horror for her, and Halloween tops her list of likes. I wonder what the rest of the list includes, but instead ask her whether she would mind being called a “Scream Queen.”

“I certainly wouldn’t mind,” Jocelin says, quick to qualify, “if you look Jamie Lee Curtis’ career, I would be honored to have her body of work.”

Somehow I don’t take that she means Halloween H20, or Virus for that matter. Interested in what kind of “message” she might look for in a “message film,” I ask what period of history draws her in.

“I studied Imperialism and Post-Imperialism.” She nods when I mention the Victorian Era. “Japan... also the United Kingdom and America.”

Jocelin’s interests cast her accurately: Her elfin presence would do well in an era of bustles, whispered Jane Austin innuendo and “the vapors.” For a potential Scream Queen, her performance in The House of the Devil depended more on the power of being quiet than it did on hysteria or heroics. Jamie Lee she is not. Keira Knightley is how the camera fits her.

“We really wanted to build suspense.” Jocelin explains, illuminating what the film practically deafens the audience with. “Isolation is a big part. It’s about how scary it is to be trapped in a house all by yourself, cut off, something that doesn’t happen much.”

The House of the Devil thrives on the isolation of the pre-digital age. Jocelin agrees.

“It was the last period that kind of thing happened. We built suspense with things like my calling Megan,” her friend in the film, “and just getting her annoying answering machine message.”

Even her fears are of delicate poison or period pieces. No zombie apocalypse nightmares for her.

“Well, I’m afraid of spiders,” Jocelin responds to being asked what scares her. “And white vans—you know, vans without windows.”

Jocelin in the horror/western 'The Burrowers'

Hillside Strangler, Lawrence “Pliers” Bittaker vans—how very 80s. I ask if she has any recurring nightmares.

“This is going to sound kind of strange.” Jocelin smiles slightly. I assure her they usually do. “I have this nightmare of being wrapped up in black paper.”

She grasps with her fingers. “Black, crinkly paper.”

I ask if she means like black crepe paper. “Yeah,” Jocelin says—the kind of ‘yeah’ that means, ‘not quite.’

Bloody in 'House of the Devil'

Anything more visceral would have surprised me. Jocelin Donahue is the real deal—a cerebral Scream Queen who actually thinks enough to have her own ideas what ‘cerebral’ means. She has bad dreams of claustrophobia and fragile entrapment, and so far, so do her films. One can hope, for the sake of variety in the horror genre, she finds well-financed writer-directors who do too.

Matthew Funk is a professional writer in marketing for corporate America, a writing mentor and the author of several manuscripts that illuminate the beauty of human extremes. A graduate of the Professional Writing MFA at USC, his work is also featured on his Web site.