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Hausu Party
by Richard of DM Note: This is based on the broadcast version (Independent Film Channel) of House and I’ve taken the character names from the subtitles which differ slightly from the film’s IMDB page. There are also a number of spoilers below but I don’t think they will detract from anyone’s enjoyment of the film. From the moment it starts, this infectious 1977 Japanese horror/comedy masterpiece, House AKA Hausu, is goddamn bonkers. Former commercial director Nobuhiko Obayashi achieves levels of artificiality the likes of which I’ve never seen. Walt Disney-like painted backdrops and actors behaving in comically representational styles pile on the quirkiness. As if this wasn’t enough, a sickly sweet musical score, loads of bizarre visual effects, and hyperactive editing further twist this film into a completely original viewing experience.
The story is about Gorgeous (played by Kimiko Ikegami), a high school girl who is looking forward to a summer vacation with her father. Unfortunately, her widowed daddy introduces Gorgeous to his new fiancé Ryoko. He says that they can finally be a proper family now. But Gorgeous wants to keep her father all to herself and refuses to go on vacation with he and Ryoko. Feeling a need to reconnect with the memory of her dead mother, Gorgeous decides to visit her spinster aunt (who she hasn’t seen since she was a child). When her six friends’ (Fantasy, Kung-Fu, Melody, Prof, Mac, and Sweet) plans also fall apart, Gorgeous invites them to come along to Auntie’s house in the country. With Auntie’s cat, Blanche, as a guide, the seven girls travel by train to their vacation spot. When they arrive, Auntie (played by Yôko Minamida) is wheelchair bound and behaves very strangely. Her house also seems to have a mind of its own as unexplainable phenomenon occur every few minutes. After a couple of the girls disappear, Auntie (who is actually a ghost) and the house itself become more and more powerful. Once Gorgeous becomes possessed, everything begins to spiral out of control. The remaining girls try to find a way out while Fantasy keeps hoping that her knight in shining armor, her teacher Mr. Togo, will arrive in time to rescue them. Even Ryoko, Gorgeous’s stepmom to be, is on her way to try and make peace with her new daughter. Do these plucky chicks have a chance against this evil house and a cannibalistic ghost aunt or will help get there in time?
Each of the seven girls in this movie has attributes connected to their names. Gorgeous is pretty and spends a great deal of time being beautiful and applying makeup. Fantasy is prone to flights of fancy (especially concerning the dreamy Mr. Togo). Melody is the musically talented one. Kung-Fu is the tomboy who excels in sports and martial arts. Prof is the brainiac who is blind without her glasses. Sweet is the sweet one, obviously, and will make a great wife one day (if she didn’t have to die). And finally we have Mac (short for Big Mac?), the food obsessed “fat one”.
Hausu doesn’t beg for your attention. It flat out fucking demands it. I feel like someone is rubbing sugar into my eyes! A very telling moment as to the irreverent intentions of the filmmakers are revealed early on when Gorgeous is telling the story of her family during WWII. A brief shot of a mushroom cloud is shown and one of the girls (probably hungry Mac) says it looks like cotton candy.
The music as the girls make their trek to Auntie’s house sounds like a smiling AM DJ’s gaping head wound. Not to mention, the animated train looks like it belongs in Yellow Submarine. The frighteningly poppy music by Asei Kobayashi and Micky Yoshino (with contributions from the band GODIEGO) does go on some magnificent progressive rock tangents especially when Kung-Fu goes into action. This makes me wonder if this film’s score influenced Keith Emerson’s composing for Dario Argento’s Inferno which features some similarly bombastic though weirdly upbeat tangents.
Did this movie fall down the stairs during post production? No, this disjointed mass of stuttering goodness is all intentional. House contains every wacky edit and wiseacre jumpcut you can imagine. Conversations are fractured as the camera is distracted by the next shot and sometimes a scene will dissolve into itself. Even the sound design has been gleefully tampered with as there are moans, explosions, whistles, and sharp gasps of breath are stashed all over the soundtrack.
Forward reverse, forward reverse, ha ha ha! You’re all totally screwed. The cat jumps back and forth from the floor to the piano seat then disappears only to reappear on the keyboard while meowing along to the music. All is not right in this twisted house. After Mac’s severed head flies through the air and bites her on the butt, Fantasy becomes enlightened and is the first to spot all the supernatural tomfoolery going on in the house. But because she’s such a space cadet, no one believes her.
Gorgeous, you fucking jerk! You brought us here! But you’re not safe either. Your vanity will turn your reflection against you and you will succumb to the burning effects of your shattered and fiery fire-face. The opportunistic Auntie uses each girl’s unique weakness so that she can feed on their life energy and/or their flesh. She and the house are rotten to the core with a death-curse brought on by the grief of when her man never returned from the war and the jealousy of watching her sister get married and lead a happy life. I just can't believe the nerve of some people!
The film’s WTF editing goes too far, though only once. The herky jerky slow motion effect used when the girls try to call for help is like a funhouse getting raped by an earthquake before your very eyes. However, what I do appreciate very, very much is all the looped editing which proves that time does not exist in this haunted and kooky world. Sorry girls, but this is never going to end.
Poor musical Melody has the best worst fate of all the girls. Her friends ask her to play something nice on the piano but she’s scared. Those hungry ivories already tasted some of her delicious finger. But, not surprisingly, our girl is a slave to the music and is compelled (or destined) to do as she is told. Melody becomes hypnotized by the thing as is unable to stop playing and thus begins one of the standout scenes in Hausu. First her fingers are eaten, then her hands, and finally her whole body is pulled into the piano. And she’s happy about it! At first, she writhes in pain as the piano wire cuts her to pieces but then her disembodied head can be seen laughing and laughing and laughing.
As we reach the climax of Hausu, only Fantasy and Prof are left alive to fight the house. The film becomes a blood-soaked (make that blood-flooded) Whirling Dervish where the viewer’s already damaged senses are now mangled by the final orgiastic sensory overload throwdown. Hausu is a happy grenade blowing your hands off with smiles. Oh, my blood is electric! I could feed off this outrageous sugar-dream forever. Come on, kids. The river of cat blood awaits you. Hausu is infinity. You will watch it. You have already watched it. You are watching it right now.
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