If you thought Mystics in Bali was bizarre, well get ready for House!

House (also called by its phonetic Japanese pronunciation: Hausu) is a 1977 Japanese horror comedy directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi.

The film came about when film studio Toho (the company behind all the Godzilla films) approached Obayashi about making a film like Jaws. Now for anyone who’s seen Jaws and House, this might come as a surprise as Jaws and House are about as similar to one another as are Forrest Gump and The Matrix.

The story focuses on a teenage girl named Gorgeous, called so because she is pretty, who has summer vacation plans with her father, who has been in Italy scoring film music. Her father reveals that Gorgeous has a new stepmother named Ryoko. This upsets Gorgeous whose mother died eight years ago, and so not wanting to spend her vacation with Ryoko, Gorgeous writes her maternal aunt asking to visit to which her aunt agrees.

Accompanying Gorgeous are her group of friends that all also have descriptive nicknames including: Fantasy, who is a daydreamer; Prof, the Velma of the group; Mac, a glutton; Melody, who is a musician; Kung-Fu, who…does kung-fu; and Sweet, who is… sweet.

The girls arrive at Gorgeous’ aunt’s house and things begin to get very, very weird from there.

Describing this film without spoilers, or even just getting its tone/style down is rather difficult for those who haven’t seen it. Not unlike a Lovecraft protagonist trying to describe some unspeakable eldritch horror, but I’ll try!

At its core, House is a haunted house movie (go figure!), but one with a zany and almost whimsical attitude about the horrors it shows. Imagine if The Evil Dead were directed by Willy Wonka, and you have a general idea of the insanity in this movie.

Apparently, the story for this movie was made using the “Axe Cop” method of getting story ideas from a younger family member, in this case the director’s daughter including her own fears about a pile of futons falling on her or getting her fingers caught between piano keys.

The special effects are often talked about in the film due to how weird and unrealistic they are, apparently a stylistic choice by the director. The film also has this weird “artificial” feeling to it and makes use of matte paintings for several backgrounds and locations.

The film was also shot without a storyboard which honestly seems a bit insane to me, but then again that sounds appropriate to this film.

Most of the cast were made up of amateur actresses that were mostly cast from girls that previously worked with Obayashi on commercials, the exceptions being Kimiko Ikegami (Gorgeous) and Yoko Minamida (Goregeous’ Aunt).

I found that despite their inexperience, most of the rest of the cast managed to play their roles adequately and found a lot of the personalities endearing. Which usually can’t be said for movies with a body count like Friday the 13th or the Halloween sequels where you spend twenty minutes with unlikeable characters, waiting for someone to die.

Lastly, I want to talk about the soundtrack, as its contribution to the film’s atmosphere is huge. The music was done by the band Godiego and is oddly whimsical and cheery despite all the death and the ensuing bloodbath, but I suppose that only helps to add to the odd charm of the film.

The main theme is also very, very catchy and I find myself listening to it a lot in my spare time.

House is a very bizarre movie, but has gained a lot of attention here in the West, especially thanks to a release by the Criterion Collection.

This is without a doubt one of the most bizarre films I’ve ever seen and frankly, I loved it!

Next week, we come back stateside!