House

What is "House?"

“House” is the 1977 cult Japanese horror film directed by television ad director Nobuhiko Obayashi, and centers around a large cast of teenagers, who, when visiting one of the girl’s aunts, are killed off one by one by the seemingly haunted house in which they reside.

I’ll cut to chase with this one: “House” is weird. Deliriously, crazily weird.

To understand why, we must first take a look at the director Nobuhiko Obayashi, and his inspiration for creating such an oddity.

Before writing the script, Obayashi consulted his daughter for various ideas, and she responded with “[that adults] only think about things they understand … everything stays on that boring human level;” this quote couldn’t represent “House” more. It’s surreal, psychedelic, and makes absolutely no sense on multiple levels.

Luckily, the film knows exactly what it is, which is what gives it most of its charm. It’s cheesy, badly acted, and the special effects are unrealistic, but it knows this, and uses it to its own advantage.

However, the most important part of the movie is, arguably, the house itself, and, boy, does it not disappoint: the set pieces are great. Many of the fantastic shots simply come from the architecture of the house; it almost feels as if the home was the creating the angles itself. For what is essentially the mother of all “haunted house” films, it is a truly worthy influence to the start of an entire subgenre of horror.

Writing this review of “House” was incredibly difficult; it is such an indescribable film to behold. Should I give it a score of eight? Seven? One? By all means, watch it, just don’t expect a film; expect an experience.

Featuring the craziest of special effects and unbelievably campy charm, “House” is a film that needs to be seen to be believed.