I sat down with Jonah to watch a Japanese film from 1977 called House. I had heard all kinds of wonderful things about this movie. I had read glowing reviews saying that it was a whacked out bit of psychedelic horror/comedy that would crank the energy up to eleven with every passing second, that it was completely ridiculous, and the closest experience to doing drugs without doing drugs. Well, all of those things are right on the money. However, they don’t even come close to actually capturing the insanity that takes place in this movie.
I’ll admit right now that I’m not going to be able to articulate what happens in this film or why you need to see it. I was tossing around the idea of watching it a second time before I wrote about it but I realized that a second viewing probably wouldn’t yield any further understanding either. I’ve seen it, it blew my mind, and now I’m trying to get you to see it. That’s probably as far as I’m going to get.
The film is about a girl named Gorgeous and her six friends (Prof, Melody, Kung Fu, Mac, Sweet, and Fantasy) who travel to her aunt’s creepy old mansion in the country to spend their summer vacation. What they don’t know is that Gorgeous’ aunt is really an old spirit who feeds off of young girls who come to visit her. Items in the house (chopped wood, mattresses, pictures, and an old piano) all eat the girls one by one until the climax of the film when…well…I don’t wanna spoil it anymore. You just have to see it to believe it.
Director Nobuhiko Obayashi has created a film that is all kinds of insane by using so many different camera tricks, colors, animation, film-within-film, split screens, crazy edits, and much much more. The movie started and ten minutes later I was trying to catch my breath and soak in everything that was happening. Visually, it looks like Suspiria on steroids, it has the feel/tone of The Evil Dead, and the energy/humor of a Three Stooges episode. Is all that possible in one movie? Of course it is! There are no limits to what House will do.
One of the many things I love about this movie are the girl characters. Each one of them has a ridiculous name that relates to their character in some way. So, Gorgeous is stunningly beautiful, Prof is a genius, Melody plays the piano well, Mac is fat, Sweet is charming, Fantasy is a day dreamer, and Kung Fu knows kung fu really well. Of all of them, Kung Fu is my favorite. Anytime a door needs to be knocked down or someone is in trouble, she arrives on the scene and leaps all over the place in a hyper edited form with crazy kung fu music blaring. She’s a blast! Fantasy also has some hilarious day dream sequences as well, especially when she dreams of prince charming taking her away on his valiant steed right after she’s just seen her friend get eaten by a piano.
Now, the thing to remember here is that this movie was meant to be fun. Yeah it’s about a haunted house that eats young girls, but it is not serious for a second and you shouldn’t take it that way for a second either. It is pure adrenaline that’s sole purpose is to entertain. And entertain it will. I should warn you that it is extremely different than anything you’ve ever seen before. The humor and visuals can be very off-putting during the first twenty minutes if you’re not into these kinds of films. But if you are still reading this review then you are probably all about something bizarre like this.
Truthfully, I haven’t been this entertained by a movie in awhile. It’s a beautiful melting pot of art house, horror, comedy, and kung fu all steaming in a Japanese stew of awesomeness. Movies like this are the reason why I love the horror genre. Just when I think I’ve seen it all, something like House comes along and rocks my world. The Criterion Collection has released the film with beautiful packaging and tons of extras to boot. Get it on Amazon or come over to my house and watch it with me because I’m dying to see it again!
-Dave
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