Dorathen
Better Late Then Never
Helloturia
I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.
Kien Navarro
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
Hattie
I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.
lamtruongtho
The first time in cinema movie history including the horror movie there is the movie made by different from any movies else that I have never watched. Hausu is where the simple things that could make you go into the craziest things that you have never seen in real life or anything else in your imagination or your dream. Although in this movie there are a lot of goofs but these is just make me laugh and make me insane when these girls go in the HOUSE and the soundtrack is awesome and crazy like the movie. All I consider about the greatest horror masterpiece in Japan
WILLIAM FLANIGAN
HOUSE (HAUSU). Viewed on Streaming. Restoration/preservation = ten (10) stars; cinematography = eight (8) stars; set design = five (5) stars; special effects = five (5) stars. Director Nobuhiko Obayashi (who is also credited as story writer, co-producer, and director of special effects) provides a high-spirited romp through the contemporary horror-film genre packed with creative and outrageous events. Obayashi has constructed a house haunted by a sweetly-appearing, senior-citizen apparition (formerly the aunt of a now visiting high school student accompanied by a half dozen of her classmates) who decidedly does not like sushi (or any other traditional Washoku). The place is filled with inorganic/organic objects who also have a taste (literally) for young, unmarried women including futons, a grand piano, light fixtures, a grandfather clock, and goldfish! And (as is often the case for ghost stories) there is a Neko (Koko No Shiro) mixed up in the proceedings (food preferences unknown). The film is mostly constructed of short takes (reminiscent of TV commercials) populated by miscast, under-experienced actresses (with the exception of Youko Minamida who portrays the spine-tingling ghost auntie) shown as having too much fun playing high school girls while group members are being devoured one by one! (Since the seven actresses are way beyond their high school days, perhaps they over dosed on silly, giggling, and mugging deliveries to help disguise things?) Restoration/preservation is outstanding. Cinematography (narrow screen, color) and lighting are very good. The use of the antiquated narrow-screen format seems to enhance the feeling of claustrophobia. Subtitles are close enough. Special effects are overly obvious, meant to be seen, and to be seen as cheesy (but imaginative)! They include models, glass shots, and jump cuts plus back and forth film reversals. There are always composite body parts floating around plus long shots of small, beautifully painted backdrops obviously erected roadside (next to nondescript fields) and apparently meant to be used for stationary vehicle medium shots. Clever and atypical nude scenes are inserted at the film's end. Set design includes (in the closing scenes) what is likely to be the longest sliding exterior door yet to appear in films. The score is particularly interesting with happy music always accompanying the most gruesome scenes! A great (and defining) cult film! WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.
Antonius Block
Oh my goodness, what at trippy, crazy, cheesy little movie this is. I don't think it has a single scene in it which doesn't have some type of campy, surreal special effect. Early on it seems like part Wes Anderson, part after-school special, part J-pop, part
I don't know, just 'out there', and certainly unique. It gets weirder and weirder as it goes. If you love the bizarre and the downright silly, movies which don't take themselves too seriously and are out to throw wild images at you, you'll probably love this film. Director Nobuhiko Obayashi has a real flair, and he's not out to make things look super-realistic, he's out to entertain. If you're looking for a ghost story, real drama, or horror, well, this isn't it. You never feel real tension, even as the cute little girls are attacked by mattresses, devoured by a piano, etc etc. For me I suppose I fell more in the latter camp, wishing the film had some balance in creating a film about the supernatural, but you can easily see why it has a bit of a cult attraction to it, and your mileage may vary.
GL84
When a group of school-girls take a trip out to a supposed-cursed mansion to take care of its inhabitants, they find the place indeed haunted by a murderous spirit of one of their family members and try to break the curse before they all fall victim to the shenanigans.This was an absolutely crazy Japanese Haunted House comedy that manages to be wildly original and wholly entertaining. What really makes this one so much fun is once it actually gets to the house in question and things start happening, as the film becomes all that much better due to a very chaotic, kinetic energy that allows for it to remain both wildly funny as well as deliver some crazy horror imagery. It holds up as well as the gags, bouncing around from one extreme sight-gag to another without much deference for a plot, makes you laugh yet still manages to maintain a horror undertone within so many scenes of the mice flying out of the cupboards, the wooden planks coming to life or the visually-haunting scene of the two playing the piano to be rather horrific in nature yet still have quite a few laughs packed into them. As well, the balance between the comedic and the horror here is strong enough that scenes like the attack by the floating head out by the water-well, the absolutely crazy piano antics where it comes to life and first bites off her fingers then actively swallows her whole inside it in a rather bizarre, crazy sequence and the rather crazy sequence of the mattress flying off the shelves and burying the victim underneath, only to then completely disappear in a rather sizable pile of feathers and insulation as a life-like doll later on. This crazy fun is only topped by the sheer madness of the finale, as nothing about it makes any sense other than to completely become filled with the most bizarre, outrageous visual gags possible with demonic cat transformations, supernatural kung-fu battles with possessed furniture, an endless torrent of blood-filled water and the strikingly haunting ghost girl running around which is only a small part of the craziness here within this section of the film, and earns this one so much positive that there's more than enough here to hold this out over the minor flaws here. The problems here are all centered on the film's bookends, as neither part comes off too well. In the beginning half, the problem here is the lame comedy and dragging pace here for these give this a slow beginning which makes this one a challenge to get into being way too hit-or-miss to be the main focus of the film. The finale is even worse, which is way too much a fantasy-driven ploy here that's based around the big romance angle that's just quite confusing here touching on these themes that were never a part of the film until this section. Overall, this might be off-the-wall but it's definitely memorable and enjoyable.Rated Unrated/R: Violence, Language and Nudity.