I know very little about non-western films. I honestly didn’t even know where to begin looking for such a film. Luckily for me, Hulu has a section entitled “international films”. I browsed through the list quickly and was immediately drawn to a film called House (1977). The description was very vague. Seven school girls visit an aunt in the countryside and encounter a haunted house. I’m a sucker for horror films. I’m an even bigger sucker for really awful and cheesy horror films. I optimistically pressed play and crossed my fingers in the hopes that it wouldn’t let me down and that it came with English subtitles. House turned out to be everything I wanted and more. It was a surreal and cheesy film that offered little horror but very
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It really is a movie one needs to see to understand. It was a viewing experience unlike any other. It felt like a mix of several genres of film all thrown together to create something completely brand new and unique. One of the strongest genres that I felt within this film wasn’t really a genre so much as a parody. There were a couple of quick paced slapstick scenes that strongly reminded me of the Benny Hill chase scenes. My favorite of these scenes was one that involved a male teacher rushing through the streets, falling down a flight of stairs, and eventually ending with his behind stuck in a metal garbage can while children on the street play the drums on it. In a documentary entitled Making of a House, director Nobuhiko Obayashi describes his film not as a horror, but as a fantasy and ghost film. I believe this is a much more fitting title. The house literally devours seven girls one by one as it is haunted by the ghost of an old lady. It’s a fantastical story with even more fantastical effects and imagery. Obayashi didn’t want anything in his film to feel remotely realistic. He accomplished this goal. The effects are over the top and extremely exaggerated. Heads float around and bite people in the rear. Cats spew enough blood to fill an entire house. Mattresses and pianos come to live to attack their victims. A girl uses kung-fu to fight phantom floating pieces of wood, a possessed cat, and a telephone. Everything is implausible. Yet every scene feels like a
It really is a movie one needs to see to understand. It was a viewing experience unlike any other. It felt like a mix of several genres of film all thrown together to create something completely brand new and unique. One of the strongest genres that I felt within this film wasn’t really a genre so much as a parody. There were a couple of quick paced slapstick scenes that strongly reminded me of the Benny Hill chase scenes. My favorite of these scenes was one that involved a male teacher rushing through the streets, falling down a flight of stairs, and eventually ending with his behind stuck in a metal garbage can while children on the street play the drums on it. In a documentary entitled Making of a House, director Nobuhiko Obayashi describes his film not as a horror, but as a fantasy and ghost film. I believe this is a much more fitting title. The house literally devours seven girls one by one as it is haunted by the ghost of an old lady. It’s a fantastical story with even more fantastical effects and imagery. Obayashi didn’t want anything in his film to feel remotely realistic. He accomplished this goal. The effects are over the top and extremely exaggerated. Heads float around and bite people in the rear. Cats spew enough blood to fill an entire house. Mattresses and pianos come to live to attack their victims. A girl uses kung-fu to fight phantom floating pieces of wood, a possessed cat, and a telephone. Everything is implausible. Yet every scene feels like a