House (1977)

A schoolgirl and six of her classmates travel to her aunt's country home, which turns out to be haunted.

Director:

Nobuhiko Ôbayashi

Writers:

Chiho Katsura (screenplay), Chigumi Ôbayashi (original story)

Stars:

Kimiko Ikegami, Miki Jinbo, Kumiko Ohba

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kimiko Ikegami	...	Oshare (Miyuki Koga) / Gorgeous / Oshare's Mother
Miki Jinbo	...	Kung Fu
Kumiko Ohba	...	Fantasy
Ai Matsubara	...	Gari / Prof
Mieko Satô	...	Mac
Eriko Tanaka	...	Melody
Masayo Miyako	...	Sweet
Kiyohiko Ozaki	...	Keisuke Tôgô
Saho Sasazawa	...	Daddy Kogarashi
Asei Kobayashi	...	Watermelon Farmer
Mitsutoshi Ishigami	...	Photographer
Ippei Hara	...	Tora-san Lookalike
Tetsuo Kanai
Shôichi Hirose	...	Ramen Trucker
Yasumasa Ônishi	...	Old Villager

Storyline

Oshare (Gorgeous) is excited about spending summer vacation with her father, until she finds out that his beautiful, freakishly serene girlfriend Ryouko would be going as well. Oshare decides she will be going to her aunt's house in the country instead. She brings with her her friends from school - Fanta (who likes to take pictures, and daydreams a lot), KunFuu (who has very good reflexes), Gari/Prof (who is a major nerd), Sweet (who likes to clean), Mac (who eats a lot), and Melody (a musician). However, the girls are unaware that Oshare's aunt is actually dead and the house is actually haunted. When they arrive at the house, crazy events take place and the girls disappear one by one while slowly discovering the secret behind all the madness.

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Plot Keywords:

cult film | absurd violence | stylized violence | bloody spray | female frontal nudity | 

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Taglines:

House is Calling to You Come Back Home and Marry Me

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Genres:

Comedy | Horror

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Despite achieving unexpected commercial and critical success upon release in Japan, the film was rarely seen in the United States until 2009. Once the film appeared in a DVD collection available to the West, American audience members began to clamor for screenings of the film. It has since received overwhelmingly-positive reviews from American audiences and has gained a cult-like following in the country.

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Quotes

Oshare: Fanta, you're fantasizing!

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Crazy Credits

The first half of the ending credits runs over candid footage of the actresses. During the second half, the credits appear over the poster illustration (similar to the Masters of Cinema cover, but with more color), scrolling up the ''tongue'' of the house. The main characters also show up on the sides of the screen.

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Connections

References The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

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Soundtracks

Buggy Boogie

User Reviews

There is really no way to correctly rate this strange experiment of a film

About 2 months after obtaining this title, I've not been able to find words to describe this movie, other than strange and bizarre. Depending on your mood it's either a noble failure or a triumph in film making. I couldn't use the terms ground breaking to describe it, but there's something important about the texture of this film.

Imagine John Hughes and Sam Raimi kicking back and doing some hard drugs and deciding to make a movie together. It might look like this. It spends a good amount of time before it gets anywhere, focusing on four teen girls whose names seem to support their abilities, expertise, or interests. At this point, it plays almost like an average teen rom-com. But note the campy soundtrack, dancing school girls, and some rather strange almost comic book like backgrounds.

It starts getting interesting as the girls set forth to movie's namesake house. They flashback and do storytelling in the form of a silent movie. We get to see some slapstick characters which don't belong in a horror movie, and we have a roll call of our four heroines as they head off into the woods. Enter the House alluded to in the film's title.

So the horror begins. But this is Sam Raimi style horror. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if some of this inspired Evil Dead - if the film was available - who knows. There's a whole series of odd scenes. Most notable is the infamous piano scene, where a piano devours someone. But that's not all. There's an evil kitty, a clock the spills out blood ala Evil Dead, a river of blood and some kooky camera work and odd cut aways! "Ambitious" might be the operative word to describe this movie. When I watch it, I'm not quite sure if it all works. The effects are crude, but not in the Ed Wood "you can see the strings" style. For me, some of it is like reading a comic book. They're bigger than life, not meant to scare you in the classical sense. But it is unlike anything you've seen before.

I guess if I have any gripe about the film, it's that it takes a good while to get really fun, but when you get there, it's an insane joyride. But it's not a normal movie viewing experience and a rating does not serve it well. Watch it for yourself - and it probably wouldn't hurt to have a drink or two while doing so.

Details

Official Sites:

Janus Films [United States] Rapid Eye Movies (REM) [Germany]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

September 1977 (USA)

Also Known As:

House: The Director's Cut

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$12,032, 17 January 2010

Gross USA:

$209,765

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$209,765

Company Credits

Production Co:

PSC, Toho Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1