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 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 | possession | stylized violence | bloody spray | 

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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

Much of the special effects techniques Obayashi wanted to use were not available by Toho's in-house special effects department.

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Quotes

Farmer selling watermelons: Do you like watermelons?
Keisuke Tougou-sensei: No! I like bananas!
Farmer selling watermelons: Bananas?

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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

Referenced in Ollie & Scoops: Pizza Pilot (2019)

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Soundtracks

Oriental Melon Man

User Reviews

An Ingeniously Bizarre Fairy Tale - Easily one of The Weirdest Flicks Ever made

Wow! Noribuki Obayashi's "Hausu" aka. "House" of 1977 is easily one of the weirdest films I ever saw and I generally generally am a fan of the bizarre. A Horror-fan and avid lover of Japanese cinema, especially from the 70s, I had high expectations for this film, and I was not disappointed, even though the film was totally different than what I had expected. Having read no reviews of the film before seeing it, I expected a pure Horror film, but it turned out to be an incomparably bizarre and experimental Horror-parody, with a delightfully macabre and grotesque humor rather than scares. The film already starts out extremely strange (in an awesome manner), and it gradually gets weirder and weirder as it goes on.

The film starts off with a bunch of teenage high-school girls, all of whom have certain distinctive characteristics that are mentioned in their nicknames, who travel to the countryside to visit the aunt of one of the girls. I don't want to spoil even a tiny bit of the plot of this unique Horror-parody, and therefore won't carry with a plot description, but I can assure that fans of surrealism and weird cinema will be delighted. While "Hausu" is not a film I would recommend to everyone, this is an absolute must-see to all my fellow fans of Japanese film, the Horror-genre and bizarre art-house cinema. Director Obayashi uses a bizarre of editing imaginable, with grotesque cutting, totally insane effects. Sometimes the editing equals that of a (bizarre) video-clip, only to jump to an entirely different style. Yet all this strangeness never draws the viewer away from the story, which is itself just as surreal as the film's style. Overall "Hausu" can be described as a unique and bizarre fairy tale with a grotesque and ingenious, often macabre and always unique sense of humor. There are moments in this film at which the viewer will just stare at the screen not knowing what to think, and scenes at which one is barely able to breathe in laughter, and every second of the film is very strange. Very delightfully strange that is, as "Hausu" is a bizarre gem that must not be missed by lovers of the surreal. Mainstream audiences might not know what to think of this, but every fan of a more unique form of cinema should give this a try. Surreal, exceptional, and one of a kind!

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