After Jaws, the successful film that attracted huge numbers at the box office, Toho Film Company approached Nobuhiko Obayashi to author such a story. It was strange for them to choose Obayashi because he had not before made any commercial films but rather personal avant-garde experimental movies and TV commercials. That is why when he was developing the script for House with his daughter Chigumi, he said that it shouldn’t be told from an adult perspective alone. Hence, even though many of them didn’t make it in the final cut of House, several ideas were obtained from little Chigumi like a house eating a girl and mirror attacking audience. Though different from Jaws, this film is hard to forget after you have just watched it once.
Gorgeous comes back home from school; dad announces that he’s married. A teenager is upset about her summer plans; so she writes to her aunt asking if she can visit her instead. Her aunt agrees and Gorgeous asks Prof, Melody, Kung Fu, Mac, Sweet and Fantasy to come along with her. During their arrival at the big country house they presented a watermelon to Gorgeous’s auntie. However, when Mac fails to return after bringing the watermelon up from a well where it was kept cold, Fantasy investigates. At this point Mac’s beheaded head flew out of the well and bit Fantasy on the behind. This is one case of many wild spooky things happening which makes them aware that the place is haunted.
If you’ve watched the House, I bet that there are some pictures stuck in your mind and you may not even have an idea why. This is one of the things that make this movie weird or appealing. Prior to any haunting commencing, you can tell it was made by a person with a different kind of cinematic approach. It got me thinking of new-age programs such as Tim & Eric and their like due to endless cuts during simple scenes where characters talk among themselves. The reasons for this film’s unpopularity among 1977 audiences became self-evident after watching the movie but I think it would have been very successful if released in the 2010s. A live-action anime about high school girls visiting a haunted house.
One part of this is that Obayashi was willing to hear children out. He lived in Hiroshima as a child and has said how his childhood friends did not survive the American atomic bomb. So he cherishes a child’s eye view all the time. In fact, it started when he thought about making a Jaws rip-off but substituting a bear for shark. When listening to his daughter though, he came across so many subconscious fears and phobias that seemed more visually alluring than what he had originally conceived.
House is a movie that will make you lose your bearing. You can give yourself to the film or you can spend its duration being in tension with it. The way scenes are framed, immediately creates discordance. Camera angles, zooms, fades and blocking break all rules even by Japanese standards themselves. Kurosawa was known for his precision, storyboarding out everything so that his shots came off with pure precision. Ozu created a gentle, calm atmosphere. In his films camera movement is a subtle affair. House takes these standards and throws them out of the window. Obayashi does not conceal the DIY nature of his efforts which gives it an endearing touch anyway. The horror always remains within the realms of fairy tales. I have been immersed in the slow cinema after watching four of the best films by Bela Tarr recently. To go from those to something as hyperkinetic as House. While this film has 30 shots, these ones are made up of countless fragmented images. Where Tarr and Obayashi meet is their manner of presenting a stylized universe which pleases them. We learn about how they view the world through their works; Obayashi’s case, however, is much more captivating in terms of childish outlooks. Besides, House is a funny Japanese imitation of Italian giallo patterns and methods.
One thing that can’t be denied is Obayashi’s love for film. He plays with the form, making it do things we would never think were possible. For example, in a scene where one of the girls is slowly being sucked into cat blood and her body disintegrates as she is suspended by a rope and then covered on stage in blue paint which will be chroma-keyed out. The manner in which this scene has been shot and edited is an impressive feat of filmmaking. The other bizarre effects are also there. Besides, he enjoys using matte paintings that are no longer found in this movie, but have been replaced by computer generated backgrounds that have been green-screened.
It seems like opening many gifts at once when you watch House. Every single moment comes with something unexpected from the film. There was a point where I just couldn’t figure it out confidently. Its ending is so insane; it’s probably the closest to Jaws this film gets. But I enjoyed watching this so much! This could easily be another candidate for midnight movies screenings in future I suppose?
Typically, I dislike crowded theaters when watching movies. But upon watching House, my mind went back to the time I watched Tommy Wiseau’s The Room at the cinema hall. I would guess that House is something like that. The picture offers a great deal of wildness for Halloween season if you are looking for something completely off-the-wall.
I don’t typically like crowded theaters when I see movies, but while watching House, I kept thinking back to my theater experience with Tommy Wiseau’s The Room and how much fun it was. I would guess House presents something quite similar. If you are searching for something completely off the wall for the Halloween season, this picture offers quite a lot.
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