This is a trip!
House (1977)
Directed By: Nobuhiko Ôbayashi
The Prologue
When someone told me I needed to watch a movie called House, I told them I already had, but I was wrong. I assumed that they meant the House that came out in the 80′s with the big guy from Night Court in it, not the 1977 Hausu from Japan. They say you’re not supposed to judge a movie or a book by it’s cover but I’ll admit after seeing the cover of this DVD with the creepy cat on it, I didn’t just want to watch House, hell I bought it. And now while writing this I can happily say that I am very proud that I did. What followed was a film soo very strange, soo very cheesy, but yet..soo very good.
The Movie
Gorgeous (that’s her name), has her world turned upside down when her Summer vacation is ruined after she finds out her Dad is about to remarry after eight years. Not yet ready to let go of her dead Mother and not ready at all for her father to move on, Gorgeous writes a letter to her aunt, who she had only met once, to seek out permission for her and all her friends from school to go to her house for Summer. Permission is granted and Gorgeous and her friends then proceed (with the aid of a cat named Blanch) to walk right into a very horrifying and extremely trippy situation.
Now I have never been on acid, as far as I know. But I bet it couldn’t be no more of a trip than watching this movie. Next to The Wall, this thing is by far one of the oddest films I have ever seen, only unlike The Wall, it makes a lot more sense. The movie kicks off in very VERY cheesy fashion, and if you didn’t know better you’d probably have no idea that you are watching a horror film. Now Asian films are all over the place these days, so imagine what you get with one from the 70′s. If you take nothing else away from House as you watch it, it’ll be that director, Nobuhiko Ôbayashi, was a visionary, making use of cheesy effects and a green screen to make this film.
I’ve heard it said (by Ti West on the special features of the DVD), that this movie is so crazy cause it’s from the point of view of a child. Which would make tons of sense if you think about it. Things are either one extreme or another, and with kids, that’s usually the case with no middle ground. The young actors play their parts very well, and with such character names as Gorgeous, Kung Fu, and Fantasy, it only works to drive home the theory that what you get here is simply a story from the eyes of children. I also kind of think that with the themes that you see in this film that it also works almost as a coming of age story for women. As weird as that might sound, I really do think it’s more than just a artsy/weird film with kids being eaten.
One other thing I did like about House was how well it makes use of it’s characters. There’s a rather large group of them, and for more or less, they all seem to have a point. Sure, maybe you could have did away with a friend or two of Gorgeous, but doing so would have taken away a cool scene that we seem to get with each. At the end of the day you end up with a film that makes use of everything and while not a blood soaked film, finds ways to strike terror in the most un-terrifying way I’ve ever seen. I’m well aware this statement doesn’t make much sense, it’s just one of those things you’d have to see for yourself.
1977 was a very “out there” year I assume, in both American and Japan. While this film is a little cheesy at times (mainly during the start) and then goes way way out to left field later, still you are left with a movie very much worth seeing, just sadly a film that won’t be for everyone. I think some of you will love it while others might hate it. It just really comes down to if you like really weird movies or not. As I noted before, a lot of these effects are very silly looking, something that was done on purpose actually. But there was a vision behind House, and the results is something like you’ve probably never seen before.
The Conclusion
I can see why Criterion seen it fit to put this out on DVD this past October, because it needed a good DVD release. I think many of you that enjoy the weirder stuff that you can find out there will have a blast watching this wacky horror film that pushes the senses. While cheesy, it really is good fun and I’d say anyone out there reading this now would be wise to check it out as soon as you can.
The Rating (7/10)
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