Forget everything you think you know about horror – because there's a Japanese film out there so utterly bizarre, so breathtakingly bonkers, it will redefine your definition of 'scary.' I'm talking about House (1977), and trust me, you need to experience this cinematic fever dream.
Sure, with Halloween breathing down our necks, it's tempting to revisit classics like the excellently gruesome Bring Her Back or the stone-cold masterpiece The Evil Dead. These are reliable choices for a spooky night in. But if you're craving something that transcends the usual scares, something that ventures into the realm of pure, unadulterated weirdness, then House is your ticket to a Halloween unlike any other. You can even get a sneak peek here: (https://youtu.be/77cMmCVBT3g)
Describing House is like trying to capture smoke with your bare hands. It's an exercise in delightful futility. But here's the basic setup: a young girl, reeling from her father's impending remarriage to a rather unsettling woman, decides to spend her summer vacation with her aunt in the countryside. She brings along six of her closest friends. Upon arriving at her aunt's seemingly innocent home, they are quickly enveloped in a whirlwind of inexplicable, supernatural events.
That's the gist – the barest skeleton of the story. It doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the sheer, unadulterated insanity packed into its 88-minute runtime. Seriously, the trailer below offers only a tantalizing glimpse into the madness that awaits.
House is the brainchild of director Nobuhiko Obayashi, whose frantic, hyper-stylized experimentation gives the film its uniquely chaotic visual signature. But here's the secret ingredient: much of the film's delightfully twisted logic comes from its co-writer, Chigumi Ôbayashi – Nobuhiko's then 10-year-old daughter. And this is the part most people miss...
In an interview included with the movie's Blu-ray release (https://go.skimresources.com/?id=1025X1701640&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.criterion.com%2Ffilms%2F27523-house), Nobuhiko explained his reasoning: "Adults can only think about things they understand, so everything stays on that boring human level. But children come up with things that can’t be explained. They like the strange and mysterious. The power of cinema isn’t in the explainable, but in the strange and inexplicable."
The result? A film that gleefully and dramatically shifts tones with the frequency of a hyperactive hummingbird. One moment, it's a family melodrama bathed in gauzy, dreamlike visuals; the next, it's a slapstick music video exploding with color and energy. Then, without warning, it plunges headfirst into proto-J-horror territory. We're talking circle wipes, obviously painted backdrops, severed heads, and geysers of impossibly bright red blood. But here's where it gets controversial... Underneath all the visual pandemonium, there's a narrative deeply rooted in Japanese folklore (https://go.skimresources.com/?id=1025X1701640&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.criterion.com%2Fcurrent%2Fposts%2F1634-house-the-housemaidens) – a story that confronts trauma not with somber reflection, but by embracing morbid absurdity. Is this a valid way to process grief, or does it trivialize serious issues?
House truly defies categorization. It is unlike anything else you've ever seen. As Carrie Rickey noted in her review for the Philadelphia Inquirer (https://go.skimresources.com/?id=1025X1701640&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newspapers.com%2Farticle%2Farizona-daily-star-house-1977%2F110311754%2F), it's "too absurd to be genuinely terrifying, yet too nightmarish to be merely comic." And that's precisely what makes it so utterly compelling. Its influence on the slapstick horror of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2 is undeniable, and it shares a certain DNA with David Lynch's Twin Peaks (https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/8/16273392/twin-peaks-the-return-finale-time-laura-palmer-dale-cooper-ending) (https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/16/24345312/david-lynch-death-director-twin-peaks), where a sinister undercurrent festers beneath a surface of seemingly nonsensical events. In both cases, the unsettling feeling of dread is a key element.
I've personally lost count of how many times I've watched House, and each time, I walk away scratching my head, muttering, "WTF did I just watch?" – and I say that with the utmost affection. It's an undeniable cult classic, a film so bizarre and captivating that it's impossible to look away. If you've never experienced its glorious madness, you owe it to yourself to rectify that immediately.
House is currently available for streaming on the Criterion Channel (https://www.criterionchannel.com/house-1) and HBO Max (https://max.prf.hn/click/camref:1101lqHRA/%5Bp_id:1011l394533%5D/destination:https%3A%2F%2Fplay.hbomax.com%2Fmovie%2F2e81bbea-1a87-410d-b89f-710583d6e60f).
So, are you brave enough to enter the House? Or do you prefer your horror served with a bit more... sanity? Let me know in the comments below!
