About the film
- Directed by
- Nobuhiko Obayashi
- Released
- August 26, 1977
- US theatrical
- September 1, 1977
- Certification
- NR
- Country
- Japan
- Starring
- Kimiko Ikegami, Miki Jinbo, Kumiko Ohba, Ai Matsubara, Mieko Satoh
More credits
- Language
- Japanese
- Origin
- JP
- Studios
- Toho Eizo Bijutsu
- Written by
- Chiho Katsura
- Produced by
- Yorihiko Yamada, Nobuhiko Obayashi, Tomoyuki Tanaka
- Cinematography
- Yoshitaka Sakamoto
- Music
- Asei Kobayashi, Mickie Yoshino
- Also starring
- Eriko Tanaka, Masayo Miyako, Yōko Minamida, Kiyohiko Ozaki, Saho Sasazawa
A piano eats a girl alive. A severed head bites another girl on the behind. A Japanese film studio asked its ad-director hire for something to compete with Jaws, and this is what came back.
HOUSE (1977), known in Japan as Hausu, follows a schoolgirl nicknamed Gorgeous who takes six friends named Fantasy, Kung Fu, Prof, Mac, Sweet, and Melody to her aunt's country home. The aunt, still waiting decades later for a fiancé who never came home from the war, lives in a house that turns out to be very hungry for teenage girls.
Nobuhiko Obayashi had spent years directing television commercials, and he brought that background's visual tricks wholesale into the film: collage, animation, painted backdrops, crude matte work, and jump cuts timed to songs performed by the band Godiego. Many of its ideas came from his young daughter, Chigumi, which goes a long way toward explaining its dream logic.
Critics dismissed it on release, but young Japanese audiences made it a hit. It remains one of the most purely inventive haunted house films ever made, a horror comedy that answers logic with pure visual appetite.
How to see House (1977)
Streaming
United States
Free
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Also available internationally
Source: JustWatch
Physical media
More editions
Movies they don’t want you to see
Related movies only streaming in other territories
Movies we wrote about
202 commentsThe Ramen Girl (2008)
36 commentsGodzilla (1977)
1 commentDogra Magra (1988)
60 commentsJabberwocky (1977)
5 commentsTourist Trap (1979)
16 commentsMr. Horatio Knibbles (1971)
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♥♥♥
The best review I ever saw this movie said it was like an episode of Scooby-Doo directed by Mario Bava.
I am sure this (and the 3 Stooges) inspired Sam Raimi – he probably watched it at one of the films they would show at the MSU dorms or the odeon theater that used to show foreign films there
Thomas Fletcher I think you’re right. And then in turn I think Raimi inspired a lot of A Chinese Ghost Story.
Anywhere But Hollywood I’m sure a Chinese ghost story had many influences, but in particular the creators cite The Enchanting Shadow (Ching nu yu hun, 1960).
Corina Diaz I’m referring mostly to the camera work – crazy POV demon attacks, etc. The original story by Pu Songling served as the basis for both films. Pu Songling was an interesting person himself, and I’d like to see a film about him. I haven’t seen Enchanting Shadow – thanks, will definitely check it out!
Love this mayhem, have my own DVD 📀
You have to know that these girls were minors that time and had y’know… mature situations.
Siegfred Santillan lots of mature movies shoot with minors; what’s your point?
Corina Diaz if you saw the whole movie, there some nudity involving minors. I think you never saw the whole picture, aren’t you?
Siegfred Santillan are you suggesting this movie illicitly shot with nude minors?
Corina Diaz you have see the movie. Some actresses were 17-18 at that time it was shot.
Siegfred Santillan you’re still not answering my question.
Kung Fu was the coolest.
It’s a movie that expresses the nukes on Japan. Lots of references. The director explained it in an interview
Brilliantly unhinged
Now I have to find this crazy film.
This movie is so unique. Very interesting watch!
Definitely on the list of all-time craziest films.