Monday, November 21, 2016

Goddamn those Japanese houses!

Hausu (House)                                                            OK/G

The first time I saw this Japanese horror/comedy/fantasy I thought it was too silly and uber-bizarre.  Especially since I watched it based on horror writers (Rue Morgue in particular) praising it.  Well, it still is goofy and very outlandish but undeniably like no other haunted house film I’ve ever seen nor (most likely) will ever see.  I did appreciate it more with a liberal mindset and can’t deny it’s entertaining in the least.  The soundtrack adds to the idiosyncratic tone which sounds like it belongs in a 70’s comedy sitcom.  Funny how certain characters aren’t thrown off by some of the supernatural occurrences at first, like when one of the girls uses kung-fu against flying logs as if that’s the normal thing to do.  I have a feeling this would continually grow on me upon each viewing.  After all, I was initially turned off by the slapstick of Evil Dead 2 but now it’s one of my favorite horror movies.  While this doesn’t have the overall horror and excessive gore of Evil Dead 2, it’s still imaginative and trippy.  (This was released a decade before Sam Raimi’s worthy sequel).  I could never conceive the manic fantastical elements on display.  Of particular note are a piano eating a girl and the house becoming a blood river spewing from a cat painting.  Very eccentric and far from my first choice of viewing but, damn it, there’s nothing else quite like it!  11/19/2016

---Sean O.

No comments:

Post a Comment