Hausu (1977)

It's bananas!!!

What happens when you add the quirky 1970’s with one of Japan’s quirkiest directors? You get an insanely creative film like House. Obayashi Nobuhiko took old elements that go bump in the night and used surrealistic effects to create something new for the time. When Obayashi is in the driver’s seat, hold on because it is going to be one wild ride!

Seven school girls travel to spend some time with Gorgeous’ aunt in her huge mansion on a hill. Gorgeous, Fantasy, Professor, Mac, Kung Fu, Sweet, and Melody descend upon the old woman living in her cobweb infested house. One by one the girls go missing as more and more bizarre incidents begin to take place.

The film started out slow as the girls discussed their plans. Gorgeous discovered her dad was getting remarried which propelled her to make the fateful decision to visit her deceased mother’s sister. When the other girls’ plans fell through, they followed Gorgeous. The train and bus rides had almost picture book backgrounds that were obviously fake. Gorgeous told the sad story of her aunt’s lover being killed during WWII with her aunt vowing she would wait for him forever. The story was told in sepia form with the girls all being able to see it. It did not take long for the nightmare to begin once they crossed the mansion’s threshold. A scary old well, creepy clocks, dusty pianos, luminous chandeliers, a skeleton, and an abundance of cat pictures which might normally make the hair on a person’s neck raise took on deadly proportions as the night went on. Obayashi used the special effects of the day and created a few of his own. The special effects were primitive by today’s standards, but this was before George Lucas took effects a giant step forward with Star Wars. Strangely, as gruesome as some of the scenes were, many came across as grotesquely funny and rarely scary.

When Gorgeous was relating her aunt’s story, she and the other girls seemed almost unfamiliar with WWII and the terrible suffering associated with it. Only 30 years out from the war, the girls lived in a peaceful society completely unaware of the price paid for it. The aunt had been unable to let go of her loss and bitterness. Little by little she began to destroy the oblivious young people chaining them to her pain and insatiable hunger. The film turned on its head two common tropes---A man will save us! An adult will save them! This ravenous haunted house hidden in the fog under a full moon had no mercy on anyone.

House is a hard film to define. It was a horror film with a devilish sense of humor. Obayashi seemed to revel in creating a macabre world of the ghostly realm and the teenagers powerless against the inexorable pull of the inevitable. Experimental, weird, and totally bananas (sorry Togo!), House felt like a bad acid trip that shouldn’t have worked but did. Mostly. Screw black cats, I’ll never look at white cats the same.

15 October 2024
Trigger warnings: Dismemberment, so many body parts. Blood

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This is a movie that is sure to keep you interested, yet also keep you wondering about a lot of things. I wanted to check out this movie after seeing a trailer of it on Hulu, so I decided to watch it. Well, the movie was alright, but the music was way too campy and made me think I was watching some kind of musical horror movie (despite it being a 70's horror flick). What's more was it left me feeling quite confused , yet it also kept me somewhat satisfied.

I recommend this movie if you want a movie that is pretty cheesy, but will keep you somewhat interested. Also recommend it if you are interested in horror films from back then (though I will warn you, it will leave you quite confused and keep you wanting to ask for more questions).

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