[Our thanks to Renzo Adler for the following review.]
While the setting of House may seem like cliché heaped upon cliché, if Nobuhiko Obayashi’s 1977 movie is anything, it is unexpected. A Japanese horror movie about a group of girls going on a vacation only to befall the terrors of a haunted house, this is one of the older films at the New York Asian Film Fest, though it is also most certainly one of the most unique. To call this just a horror movie would be misleading and probably conjures up images of long haired specters seeking vengeance in some convoluted fashion, but House is far too whimsical for that.
A pastiche of horror and cinematic motifs spanning practically every genre throughout history, House has a visual style akin to a comic book store in the grips of an epileptic seizure while a cartoon is projected onto all of it. At one point the film is a school girl melodrama, only to switch to a Hong Kong style fight scene, then to a 1920’s silent film motif, a musical montage, and then it’s a candy colored danse macabre; constantly shifting its style and form in the most bizarre ways. Indeed the film’s style, visual gags, and characters are far more akin to manga by the likes of Go Nagai or Kazuo Umezu (in fact, director Obayashi did adapt Umezu’s Drifting Classroom to film) than traditional horror movies.
It’s a shame that House was never released in the states sooner, or people would realize it beat The Shining to the punch in the crazy haunted house genre (House, 1977 and Shining, 1980), though in some respects House has more in common with the 2008 Speed Racer film in the sense that House as a grasp on reality that is tenuous at best. The whole film is vibrant, light hearted, and jovial, though admittedly, confusing. The combination of strange occurrences and somewhat choppy special effects make many scenes disorienting, bordering on non-sensical, but at least things never get boring.
House has a very pop infused style, combined with an artistic sensibility that can be gleamed from Nobuhiko’s early short films, but the film always maintains a fun attitude and is never bitter or demanding of the viewer. Really folks, I am sorry for being unable to describe this film in more concrete terms, but it has to be seen to believed, this movie is that insane. House is simultaneously the ultimate homage to horror of yesteryear, while being its own strange beast at the same time. This is certainly not a movie for everyone, but if you are on this website and reading this review, then you are probably the right audience for it. I realize this may seem like a goofy film compared to some of the more serious entries to the NYAFF, but I implore you, see this movie!
PS: If you like this, try and track down Obayashi’s The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (1983)
Review by Renzo Adler
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Good review, and don't be sorry about trying to describe it! It really is one of the most incredible but bizarre films I've ever seen (and without subtitles!), and highly recommended for anyone with an interest in films that abandon all convention both in terms of narrative and visuals. Creepy, funny, spooky, weird, barmy - it's a real ghost train of a film.
On a similar note, has anyone seen Sweet Home? I've been very interested in it since playing the Famicom game released at the same time, an early inspiration for the Resident Evil titles.
I saw this at a Japanese film festival in Edinburgh a couple of years ago...superbly crazy and psychedelic! It's a pity that it's not available on DVD in an English language version (there's a German DVD that was released a couple of years ago, but that doesn't have English subs).
The special effects in this movie are really, really nice and perhaps even ahead of their time. Not to mention the lovely theatre-like sets that you rarely see these days.
Hausu is one of those films that seems that it fell from another dimension, a dimension where kick-ass stuff is part of everyone's daily meal. The movie rocked my sucks, it embodies everything i think it's right, and fully endorse, on cinema as a whole.
I saw this on IFC of all things, and it was one of those perfect 2 a.m. "What...the...hell?" things. I loved it.
HOUSE aka HAUSU was part of the talk that fellow critic Shade Rupe and I did at Seattle CryptiCon a couple of weeks ago. People were very taken by the visuals and toe of the film, judging from the reaction to the clip we showed.
"toe of the film" ?
The film, to be clear, has no toes. Hell it doesn't even have feet. But it does indeed have legs.
I meant "tone" for the record.
:)