House-Nobuhiko Obayashi
On the heels of seeing Labyrinth for the first time (in its entirety), I picked up this curious little piece of Japanese cinema on a whim. Now, after having fully digested Labyrinth, I thought that Jim Henson had taken some very extravagant liberties in stretching his imagination to fit the needs of his story. But this film….WOW! I know Everything, Everywhere, All at Once is the modern-day surrealist tale garnering recent acclaim. But House was a much superior achievement. Just about every elemental genre is included: Drama, Musical, Comedy, Horror, Politics, Animation, Action, & Fantasy. Despite its wacky assembly of parts, House is a work that strides from beginning to end linearly. It is near to impossible to explain this story in detail. But from the outset, we are introduced to Gorgeous, a Japanese student who is about to embark on a luxurious vacation with her father for the summer. He springs a surprise on her though, and introduces Gorgeous to his new wife. She rebels and rounds up the six of her friends, writing a letter to her Aunt whom she hadn't seen in many years, asking if she and her friends could visit for the summer, and Aunty says yes. The girls arrive at her aunt's house via a bullet train and once they become acclimated within the property the bizarre events begin to unfold. The Aunt, at first, greets the girls in a wheelchair with a long-haired and well-trained cat serving as her medium. Mac, a friend named after the "Mac" part of the stomach for her voracious appetite, disappears when going to fetch a watermelon out of the well. When Gorgeous goes to check on her, Mac's head springs up to the rim of the well and attacks Gorgeous, biting her on the rear end. Soon after this, each of the girls succumb to a unique demise that is seemingly tailored to their personality. Melody is eaten by a piano. Kung Fu is gobbled up by a hanging lamp, Prof (professor) is yanked off of a raft by the teeth of a floating cup to drown in blood, and Sweet becomes entrapped within a Grandfather clock (this after having been ambushed by an army of mattresses), and Gorgeous becomes possessed by her Aunt. The reasoning behind all of these things happening, we discover through the medium of the Aunt's journal, is that she lost her one true love during World War 2 and has been waiting for his return ever since. After expiring, her spirit has taken over the house and eats up any unmarried young women in the meantime. As tough as it is to imagine a storyline such as this, it is even more unbelievable seeing it play out in real-time. But, despite its ludicrous plot and inconceivable occurrences, House, somehow….worked. It worked damn well as a matter of fact. The alternating comedy with incredibly dark fantasy and series of macabre demises aroused a sort of fear within me I haven't felt since kiddom. I later found out that many of the bizarre ways that each girl reaches her death were taken from the suggestion of the director's (Nobihiko Obayahi) 12-year-old daughter. So in a sense, that may be why this film reawakened those forgotten fears from the deepest cavities of my brain. What kid hasn't hauled ass up the basement stairs after having been forced to go down to the laundry room alone for a clean shirt with the imaginary licks of a fire nipping at his rear end, under the irrational fear that the furnace was going to eat him for breakfast? Or, thought that the creepy pictures in his Aunt's hallway were square prison cells for the trapped souls of innocent people (The Witches). Or, despised the evil chimes that echoed throughout the cavernous living room of a drafty unfamiliar house when the Grandfather clock woke you up to let you know that death was lurking inside of every darkened corner. I found that, in House, through the darkened imagination of a 12-year-old, this world can become extremely terrifying. Even more so as a child than as an adult, when the irrational fears of the imagination are simply substituted by those which are real. House is one of those surrealist Horror films that carves an indescribable home within your psyche that refuses to allow you to put a finger on exactly what aspect of the film you liked so much. You just know that you do. Possession, Evil Dead 2, Eraserhead, Fantastic Planet, Audition, and Suspuria (to a lesser extent) all would fit into this genre. The interspersed animation I thought worked brilliantly to create a very unsettling roller coaster ride inside of this haunted house and the feeling of claustrophobia that attacked the inner child was very well done. Mind you, this is a very weird film, and not for the inexperienced. So if you are going into this viewing as a novice, be prepared. The swings from comedy to fantasy to horror are incredibly rapid and may turn off the average filmgoer very quickly. But for those of you who are looking to uncork a new adventure to spice up the cinephile palate, this one will do the job. Originally, I was going to give this one four stars, but after having gone over the scenes again in this review, I am seriously considering buying this movie. Thus it deserves four and a half. The only knocks I had were the goofy bits and pieces, but for the large part, House was deliciously unsettling and VERY well done.
*Little Easter egg for the My Chemical Romance fans. If you watch this film, you may just find the origins of one of their most famous hits. I'm not even a fan and spotted it instantaneously.*
Stars: ****1/2
Verdict: Watch
Cousins: Possession, Evil Dead 2, Audition, Fantastic Planet, Eraserhead