House (1977) Review

"My fingers are gone."

-Melody

After her father returns from a work trip with a new wife, high-schooler Gorgeous (Kimiko Ikegami), decides to go and visit her aunt (Yōko Minamida) and brings six of her girlfriends with her to kick off their summer vacation.  Mysterious events start happening around Auntie's large house and the girls start to disappear.  The survivors quickly realize something is causing the house to come alive and devour those trapped inside one-by-one

What Works:

House is an absolutely insane movie and most of that comes from the editing and special effects.  The effects were intentionally made to look unrealistic which adds to how surreal this film feels and gives some great atmosphere.  The editing is completely bonkers and it made me feel like I was watching a live-action anime.  I was constantly asking the film what was happening and I rarely got an answer, but it was such an enjoyable ride that I didn't care.

The cinematography is also excellent.  There are some really beautiful shots and impressive techniques considering this film came out in 1977.  The filmmakers really knew what they were doing and took some risks that mostly paid off.

The two best characters in the film are two of Gorgeous' friends, Kung Fu (Miki Jinbo) and Prof (Ai Matsubara).  They are by far the most competent characters in the film.  They remain skeptical of the situation for a bit too long, but once things start to get really crazy, they remain calm, cool, and collected under pressure and refuse to give up.  Even in all the chaos, Prof doesn't stop trying to find a way to beat the house and Kung Fu is a total badass.  They aren't the most developed characters, but they are both likable and competent.  That's enough for me to root for in this type of film.

What Sucks:

The characters in this film aren't very engaging (apart from Kung Fu and Prof).  All off them are very one dimensional.  They each have exactly one character trait and it is their name.  Prof is very intelligent and Kung Fu is great at marital arts.  This makes them both useful characters in the later stages of the film, but the rest aren't as great.  Gorgeous is really pretty, Melody (Eriko Tanaka) can play the piano, Mac (Mieko Sato) eats a lot, Sweet (Masayo Miyako) is very nice, and Fantasy (Kumiko Oba) is a day-dreamer.  None of them, apart from Gorgeous, has any more depth than their names and this makes it hard to care about the less useful members of the group.  And even Gorgeous isn't all that interesting.  She just has some family drama that sets everything in motion.

The other main problem comes from the film's protagonist, Fantasy.  She is the first one to sense something is wrong, but none of the others believe her, and apart from that, she's pretty useless.  Now I thought she was getting set up for a redemption character arc.  The entire film she believes the teacher she has a crush on is going to come and rescue them all.  In reality, he's a bit of buffoon and gets nowhere close to helping them.  This seems like a great opportunity to have Fantasy save herself.  That would have been a great character arc, but no.  Instead, she's the last survivor standing and basically just gives up and dies.  It's not only disappointing, but feels like a missed opportunity.

Verdict:

House is a totally bonkers movie.  Most of the characters aren't great, especially the protagonist, but the movie is such a fun ride I can mostly look past these flaws.  The effects are crazy, the cinematography is excellent, and we do get a couple of competent characters to root for.  It's a completely insane film, but it's a lot of fun and has absolutely got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good