photograph: IMDb

My typical haunted house includes menacing creaks from door hinges and floorboards, evils hidden behind dressers and under bed frames, the mysterious sound of footsteps in the dark, and the all-encompassing feeling of dread. It does not typically include a hungry piano, watermelons in wells, and possessing mirrors, but in conjuring up those images, I find that the haunted house is merely an empty setting, waiting to be filled with dastardly, dreadful horrors any specific imagination conjures up.

The most effective haunted house movies, aside from those included within or otherwise reminiscent of the Goosebumps series that nightmared my youth, are those where the evil is so palpable and inescapable that it reflects a horror greater than can be understood through merely the house. Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Hausu is a brilliant, maximalist telling of a haunted house through the fateful tale of a schoolgirl and her group of friends going on a trip to her aunt’s rural home. In unraveling the history of the home, it invokes themes of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; essentially, it was a social horror before it was a flashy, American genre.

Obayashi was first approached for the film under the pretense that he would make a film similar to Jaws– a terrifying, cultural phenomenon, box office smash hit of a film. Though House did not receive the same critical acclaim, its current reputation as a cult classic is perhaps more fitting for the pure weirdness the film exudes. Obayashi drew from childlike fears, more visceral and fitting for a haunted house than something the rational adult brain could conjure up

Note:: See my Goosebumps mention earlier. To this day, nothing terrifies me more than Slappy, the living dummy!)

House is so perfectly strange I feel that it has to be seen to be believed – it proves difficult to make sense of otherwise.

Though most horror and thriller films today rely on CGI sleekness in an attempt to reimagine a scary sense of reality, House proves that these gimmicks aren’t all that required. Floating heads, chopped fingers in piano keys, and blood spilling in a grandfather clock are terrifying in the sense that speak to the most primal, childlike fears… the kitschy kind of aesthetic that made “Haunted Mansion” such a popular Disneyland ride (do NOT let this be seen as some sort of amusement ride films commentary!) In a way, House speaks to a near-forgotten corner of cinema that didn’t yearn for mere commercial success and instead dared to be personal, interesting, and creative. For all its ridiculous shenanigans and special effects, the horrors and heart of House was as real as it gets.

Like any horror movie, especially one that’s this gloriously bloody, shocking, and silly, House is sure to be an exceptional theatrical experience. Bring your friends, your snacks *wink-wink*, and an open mind – don’t expect this to be like any other haunted house movie you’ve ever seen before.

House (Hausu) screens on Wednesday, March 27 at the Coolidge Corner Theater.

Until next Wednesday,

Karenna

Haunted Houses

photograph: IMDb