Not to be confused with the 1986 movie of the same name, House is (you guessed it) a haunted house movie. But it's a Japanese haunted house movie. Japan can be extremely weird at times, and this is one of the country's stranger exports; this movie is weird to the point where the viewer is best to abandon all hope of comprehension of the movie.
It follows the typical haunted house movie structure, but with a very unique twist. The usual "this place is haunted but the characters haven't figured it out yet" scenes are incredibly bizarre, and blur the line between the film's rules of reality and its rules of paranormal occurrences. The same could be said for most of this movie, however. Everything in this film is utterly insane, even the scenes meant to be grounded in reality. And while this is a horror-comedy, House leans more towards the comedic side.
The pure insanity of the film is what keeps the plot moving forward, and it does so pretty effectively. This is a very fast-paced film, and the plot hurtles around like demented rollercoaster ride. We shoot around from character introductions, to the plot set up, and then to a series of insane events at the haunted house. However, there are a few plot threads that go unanswered at the end of film, and the ending is particularly nonsensical. But given the nature of the the film, it's pretty easy to look past.
One of the strangest aspects of the film, though, is the editing. The film editing is all over the place; there's zany fast-motion shots accompanied with bizarre cuts in movements, there's inexplicable slow motion scenes, there's several scenes where characters in the background are given a spotlight-esque shot while everyone else remains clearly in the foreground, and so on. The only thing I can think of comparing it to is a strange hybrid of the Monkees' TV show and the cinematography from Ang Lee's "Hulk". It works very effectively, however, and gives a sense of unease during the more horror-oriented scenes. The special effects are also very well done the time, and involve a strange combination of animation and greenscreening. This is wonderfully complemented by the manic editing, resulting in a memorable scene of a girl-eating piano.
The only problem I have with House is that gets a little too weird at times. This movie is already incredibly strange, but it veers into insanity towards the end. It gets to the point where the movie stops making any sense whatsoever, and becomes extremely difficult to comprehend. And while it's fine for a more artistic movie to have confusing moments because of various expressionistic-type factors, it seems at times that House just doesn't know when to quit being weird and continue telling the story. There's not really anything else to criticize about this movie, other than a few minute details, which can be easily overlooked.
Overall, this is a straight up insane movie, and a major joyride the whole way through. The story is engaging and funny, the editing keeps you on your toes, and the general weirdness keeps you guessing at every turn. It's a very illogical movie, and there's no point in trying to make much sense of it, this is just one of those movies that needs to be viewed with the logical part of your brain turned off. It's a lot of fun to watch, and highly recommended.
Enjoyment- 5/5
Quality- 4/5
IMDB Page- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076162/
April 9, 2012
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