Review of House

House (1977)
8/10
This movie is... bizarre.
21 January 2019
In the realm of WTF there are some movies that mess with your mind and make you ask what the hell that was. Movies like Eraserhead, Tetsuo the Bullet Man and The Holy Mountain are brought up as examples of this. But none of them hold a candle to the serious mind screw that is "House" or "Hausu" depending on your preference.

A bunch of schoolgirls head to a creepy house in the countryside owned by an aunt of one of the girls. Each one is named after a skill, ability or character trait. Gorgeous is pretty, Kung Fu likes to fight and Mac likes to eat. And once they get there things get weird.

To try to even describe this movie is a challenge. Things happen. Really weird things happen. It's got a charming 70's vibe to it. The effects, although amateurish by today's standards, are well done for the era. And while the actors do a decent job, it's full of theater acting. The difference is that their actions tend to be a little over the top and not natural. This is of course a hallmark of Japanese cinema where a more stylized take is preferred over something more natural that we expect over here. That's not a bad thing though as it lends an air of other worldliness to what would otherwise be a rather tepid story.

In short, it works. If you're a fan of the bizarre you really ought to take a look at this.
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