House (1977)

House the 1977 Japanese horror film has no relation to House the 1986 American horror film other then that both movies take place partially inside of a house. The first feature film directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi, who had previously directed commercials and short experimental art films, took advantage of a Japanese film industry in a moment of transition to make whatever the hell he wanted, and it turned out to be a huge hit. House is loosely a horror film but really goes all over the place in terms of tone and visuals, there are early portions of this film that play something like a Japanese version of Sesame Street, and then later there is nudity. The plot concerns seven high school girls who travel to the country home of one of the girls (Kimiko Ikegami) aunt (Yoko Minamida) for summer vacation and are all gradually killed off in various ironic ways by 'the house' itself (a girl who likes to play the piano is eaten by a piano, a girl who likes to eat watermelon is turned into a watermelon, ect). It's all very strange, very kinetic, and it all gets to be a little much. Though only 88 minutes in length the persistent, ungrounded strangeness of the film wore on this viewer, I think this could have been a great 20 minute short, but at this length I got tired. Still depending on your tastes this film could well be worth seeing, even if just to satisfy you curiosity. This movie is really something, it just turns out not to be something for me. **