Releasing in the UK on Monday, 25th Jan 2010...
House (Hausu)
DVD, Eureka
To get a good idea of just how unhinged and bizarre this lost 1977 classic is, one only needs to look at the DVD's chapter headings. They start off quite innocently - "Summer Holiday", "Journey", "Supper" - but for the closing quarters of the film they are reduced to: "Not Good", "Blimey", "Indescribable" and "...!!!". When you watch the film you'll see these descriptions are perfectly accurate.
Director Nobuhiko Obayashi managed to convince producers that his debut movie would be as entertaining as Jaws, hence the vogueish one-word title. Instead of a shark, though, he relied on suggestions from his 13-year-old daughter as to what would supply the scares. Her list included a piano that bites fingers off and a severed head dropped down a well. He did the right thing listening to her. The story concerns a group of schoolgirls with names that sum up their character traits – Prof, Melody, Kung-Fu etc – taking a summer holiday in an aunt's country house. The house then tries to kill them. Simple as that.
Stylistically, it starts off over the top, then continues upwards. It's the kind of film that can have a man turn into a pile of bananas or a creepy painting of a cat spew blood everywhere without breaking its stride. It revels in artifice, with painted backdrops, excessive bloodletting and animation all over the place. The girls are attacked by lampshades, clocks, furniture, anything really. It's far too giddy and jaw-dropping to actually be scary but then you can't have everything. And everything is very nearly what this film delivers.