Writer(s): Chiho Katsura, from an idea by Chigumi Ôbayashi
Starring: Kimiko Ikegami, Miki Jinbo, Kimiko Ohba, and Ai Matsubara
If Criterion, the company
that released this long-hidden Japanese “haunted house” flick to the masses,
can’t find a fitting way to describe it on the back of its own DVD case, then
how am I supposed to describe it to you, my loyal readers? The internet is chock-full of attempts to
accurately convey what you’re in for when you sit down to a screening of
Nobohiko Obayashi’s Hausu (House), and while they all succeed to some extent,
the only way to really get an understanding of what it’s all about is simply to
watch it. It’s every bit as bizarre and
indefinable as you've been lead to believe.
But to simply dismiss it as a
part horror, part comedy oddity is to ignore the freewheeling genius of
Obayashi’s vision: It’s a non-stop
parade of originality, unveiled at a truly feverish, awe-inspiring pace. Yet it’s all somehow imbued with an
undercurrent of sincere emotion; the final sequence makes a statement that
would be eye-rolling and preachy in any other work of melodramatic fiction, and
yet here—amidst a sea of non-sequiturs and outlandish behavior—it somehow hits
home, if for no other reason than it seems to be the only genuine scene in this
whole state of affairs.
Describing the plot of Hausu
is a truly futile, frustrating process, so I will just stick to the bare
minimum: Gorgeous (that is her name) plans to take a
vacation with her father, who reveals at the last minute that another woman
will be accompanying them: she is Ryouko, a woman that her father has been dating, without Gorgeous' knowledge, for some time now.
Disgusted at the thought of her dad getting over the loss of her mother so quickly (she died a whopping eight years ago), she refuses to accompany him, and
instead writes a letter to an aunt that she has not seen in a decade, asking if
she can come and visit her in her creepy secluded mansion.
She gets a letter back,
accepting her request, and rounds up some friends from school to go with
her. Amusingly, similar to Gorgeous (so
known because of her good looks) all of her friends are also named based on
their personalities: There’s Prof (short for professor; she’s smart), Mac (is
larger than the rest and always craves food), Fantasy (who is always
daydreaming), Sweet (who is a clean freak), Kung Fu (who likes to fight), and
Melody (who can play the piano). All of
them will rely on their unique traits to get them out of (or to put them in)
perilous situations as it becomes apparent the house as a mind of its own.
But I’m getting a little
ahead of myself here. The aunt seems to
be very excited to have visitors, as it is reiterated again and again that
visitors rarely, if ever, come around.
Then, all of a sudden Mac disappears.
The remaining girls alternate between occasional concern and a complete
lack of sympathy, as they continue to explore the house and all of its creepy
nuances. Not surprisingly, Mac’s
disappearance is only the tip of the iceberg, and soon the house begins to pick
off the survivors one by one.
The truth is, no amount of
words can accurately convey just what makes Hausu so special; its charms mainly
lie in the exhausting number of visual tricks and effects that Obayashi
implements to bring his story to life: layers of video are layered on top of
each other, disembodied heads come to life and attack, pianos devour
unsuspecting women…and these instances are but a small fraction lying in wait
to ambush oblivious folks who pop a copy of Hausu into their preferred media
player of choice. Often, the effects
themselves are pretty awful, just as they probably were even back in 1977, when
this film was made. But they’re carried
out with such a childish enthusiasm and infectious energy that they somehow
work, before we move right on to the next set-piece.
According to the booklet that
accompanies the Criterion DVD, Obayashi took many of the ideas for the plot
from his eleven-year-old daughter, which suddenly puts some things into a
little more perspective: Was he
attempting to make this movie the way he imagines she would have? Or was he taking the idea of a haunted house
horror film, and intentionally twisting it into a children’s film that his
daughter could enjoy? Where did the
collaboration between him and his daughter stop? The frantic visuals and neverending
imagination don’t seem so weird and out-of-place when armed with this
knowledge.
Whatever your opinion of
Hausu, one thing is for certain: There’s enough imagination on display here to
cover the amount of originality in a year’s worth of mainstream horror releases. It won’t wow you with its plot (though the
stilted dialogue is often hilarious), but its infectious sense of fun will win
over all but the most jaded of audiences.
There’s some nudity, which kind of feels a little forced, and
out-of-place (these girls are all supposed to be 16), but aside from bleeding
walls, not much violence or gore to speak of, making it acceptable for most
older audiences.
RECAP: It doesn’t make much
sense, but that doesn’t prevent Hausu from being, quite possibly, one of my
favorite horror-themed films of all time.
Based off plotlines suggested by the director’s eleven-year-old
daughter, it’s a seamless blend of wild inventiveness and childish enthusiasm,
blended with an absolute fearlessness to try new things that is never short of
awe-inspiring. It’s certainly not for
everyone (it’s probably not for most people), but if you enjoy original works,
this is a movie you simply have to see to believe.
RATING: 9/10
TRAILER
