REVIEW: DVD Release: House

Film: House
Release date: 25th January 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 87 mins
Director: Nobuhiko Obayashi
Starring: Kimiko Ikegami, Kumiko Ohba, Yôko Minamida, Masayo Miyako
Genre: Horror/Comedy/Fantasy
Studio: Eureka
Format: DVD
Country: Japan

Originally released in 1977, House became a box office hit in its native Japan. However, it took until 2010 before British audiences were deemed ready to experience this deranged debut, after a successful theatrical run in the US.

Oshare, who lost her mother eight years ago, has finished school and is excitedly looking forward to her summer vacation with her father. That is until he introduces her beautiful “new mother.”

Distressed that her father is moving on, she decides to head off with a group of school friends to her mysterious auntie’s isolated countryside mansion.

However, all is not well within this house, and soon the girls are fighting for their survival, whilst many secrets come to light…


As with most films that gain infamy, House is hardly an easy watch, with no cohesion attempted, and little let-up, as director Nobuhiko Obayashi looked to push the boundaries of what was possible at that time, using different filming styles/techniques (the jerky, slo-mo scenes are particularly unsettling) and manipulations to create a vibrant, if cluttered psychedelic world. Of course, plenty of the humour is intentional, but the severe dating of the special effects has only amplified the film’s comic value – when the character Melody’s (she’s musically adept you see) fingers are severed off, they take on a life of their own (clearly attached to strings), playing the aunt’s piano, which subsequently eats her. It’s all hysterically awful (let’s not mention the ravenous mattresses or dancing skeletons).

Despite this, there are some genuinely standout scenes, whose impact and ingenuity hasn’t been lost despite our predilection for big budget CGI today. The blending of live action with the fantastical, kaleidoscope background during the girl’s train journey is breathtaking; the silent movie interjections are handled with unexpected maturity; whilst the severed head that floats around biting one of the girls on her rear before vomiting blood manages to both amuse and disturb.

The extreme use of colours and a demented soundtrack (interferes with the onscreen dialogue, is used to convey emotions, and has no consistency – most painfully when it reaches a high-pitch), are also both used to mind warping effect, suitably aiding the film’s frenzied pace and dark undercurrent.

The comic book element is also used cleverly and in context (the introduction of each girl who has their own special individual talent, or impediment, most notably the martial arts ‘expert’ Kung-Fu whose kicks and punches are only lacking flash ups of the words “Pow!” and “Bap!”), and the jokes come thick and fast. However, whilst you warm to the tongue-in-cheek humour initially, it becomes a somewhat arduous element. Taken with a barrage of distorted visuals and audio, it all contributes to a somewhat frustrating piece of cinema, whose excesses begin to overbear – at least, if taken in a non-inebriated state.

Its real viewing worth, is in linking the influence it had on subsequent filmmakers internationally (even with Japanese gore films today), particularly Sam Raimi, whose subsequent Evil Dead should have afforded Obayashi a creative credit given its level of pilfering. But given how much the director was attempting here, and even if plenty doesn’t work, or couldn’t for the capabilities at the time, it’s a given that many of these ideas would resurface again – even with the likes of The Grudge, a fairly sophisticated piece of modern horror filmmaking.

The story comes second to the director’s experimentation, but it’s suitably bizarre, with many confused tangents, and a few cracking one liners: “You look good enough to eat,” delivered in a wonderfully sinister tone as the auntie views Mac (the overweight character who can’t stop eating), and the reiterated phrase “save us Kung-Fu” – given the other characters’ worthless attributes (OCD, nerd…), it’s understandable the athlete would be expected to ‘save the day’.

The girls, who are always “sure there’s a reasonable explanation for this,” are intentionally stupid (they witness plenty of crazy shenanigans and accept a few missing persons before it dawns on them that this is not a safe abode), and so you have no attachment to the characters - as you to try to regain your senses between each brain twister, it’s difficult enough to keep a grip on the storyline, so keeping everything else two-dimensional is a relief.


Completely insane from start to finish, this camp creation needs to be seen just to be believed, even if it’s pretty crude fare whose only real enjoyment comes from spotting steals found in more satisfying subsequent releases. DH