In addition to the usual reviews and comments you would find on a horror movie blog, this is also a document of the wonderfully vast horror movie section of the video store I worked at in my youth.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

It's a Mad Houssse!!!

I checked out the 1977 Japanese movie House recently, as it just finished a week-long run at the Bloor.


Accompanied by six of her friends, spunky teen Gorgeous (Kimiko Ikegami) decides to visit her aunt, who she hasn't seen since she was a child, at her country home. It is not long before they realize the house is haunted and an evil spirit is picking them off one by one.

House is one of those movies that's truly indescribable. I mean you can watch the bits on YouTube, but you won't be full witness to the insanity of this movie until you've experienced it whole. I cannot imagine the amount of drugs that must have been consumed while making this movie. I know I sure felt like I was on something while in the theatre.


All I really remember are images. Huge lips, bananas, floating heads, watermelons, ravenous pianos, killer pillows and, of course, the cat. Actually, that's not true, I can recall a great deal of it. I think it's likely because my mind was working to figure out just what the hell was going on most of the time. But in a good way. I also think House should win some sort of award for best character names. Along with Gorgeous, there's Fantasy, Sweet and Mac who likes to eat and Melody, who plays the piano, don't ya know. Then there's Prof, she's the one with the glasses and lastly, Kung Fu. She... well, I'm sure you can guess.

While doing some research, I read that the idea for House came from the director's seven-year-old daughter, which throws a whole new light on everything. Anyone who reads the web comic Axe Cop knows that a child's imagination run wild is a truly delightful thing.


If House sounds like your kind of trip, I have good news for you. Criterion is releasing it on DVD and Blu-ray on October 26th. I might suggest Criterion put a warning label on the disc though, something to the effect of “sparking up before viewing this movie, may cause permanent dementia.”

1 comment:

AllHallowSteve said...

Man I'm sooooo glad someone else has seen this and um, "enjoyed" it... ?

I caught a screening back in March and, as it's not yet on DVD, (but thanks for the heads up that it's coming!) have been raving about its insanity for months to anyone who'll listen.

http://halloweenaddict.com/2010/03/review-hausu-or-house-japanese-haunted.html