A young schoolgirl named Gorgeous is ecstatic when her father returns home from his film composing job, as the two had previously made plans for an extravagant summer vacation. Upon his arrival, he introduces his daughter to a woman, who is to become Gorgeous' new stepmom. Upset about the unannounced inclusion of a new person into their family, especially after her biological mother had passed away several years ago, Gorgeous writes a letter to her aunt and asks if she can come to visit for the summer instead. Surprisingly, she receives a positive response back, and rounds up a group of her friends to travel alongside with her. Upon their arrival, they are warmly greeted by Gorgeous' elderly family member, and set out to enjoy their time off. Well, until the students start encountering strange spirits, disappearing, and dying in an unusual manner.
Watching Japan's Hausu (naturally translated as House), a 1977 effort distributed by the oh-so-notable Toho Co. this soon after viewing Brian Yuzna's Society may have been a terrible idea. While the former is nowhere near as disgusting as the American picture released eleven years later, it is just as bizarre, lavish, colorful, and flat-out weird as anything out there. I actually bumped this up from a later number in the movie listings for this year's Unseen Terror solely because they were showing it in a theater not very far from my apartment. Passing up the chance to see what some call the undisputed king of trippy, fucked up Japanese cinema on a large screen would have bothered me for quite some time. But my goodness, I just wasn't prepared for such an experience.
Hausu's strengths lie in its (un)natural ability to show you things that even the darkest and most demented part of your psyche didn't think could actually be filmed. There are several key moments which feel as if you have landed inside the mind of a filmmaker who has made the conscious decision to say "to hell with anything making sense." This decision doesn't necessarily mean that it turns in bad results however. Some creators make that work wonders and it increases the overall memorability and fun factor (pictures such as The Machine Girl or Tetsuo: The Iron Man come to mind). While Hausu doesn't sport nearly the same budget or body modification-based ideas that those have in spades, it is very vibrant and for all we know, the script could have been dipped into a large vat of LSD before filming began. The images and sequences found throughout its eighty-eight minute running time are enough to fill out an entire television series, which makes it all the more impressive that they were able to fit all of them into one motion picture.
Cast-wise, I couldn't honestly tell you much about any actress' background or even much of their character traits. Well, besides Mac, Kung Fu, and Gorgeous, who are renowned for being an excessive eater (like "Big Mac." GET IT?), skilled in martial arts, and for being rather pretty. It doesn't serve that much importance in the end as we all get the feeling that they are just laboratory rats that have wandered into a maze with traps at every single end. The creativity in which people are offed or disappear in Hausu show an early sign of things to come from future entries in the "horror comedy" genre. I don't want to go into spoilers, but when you have a schoolgirl named "Melody" being devoured by a piano during your second act, then you know that you have stepped into a rather twisted, but hilarious world. And no, I did not forget to mention that this movie is quite amusing. Many bits feel like they were lifted from a Looney Tunes cartoon or Three Stooges shorts. If you can not stand humor that seems to gorge upon the absurd and over-the-top, then this flick may not be for you.
Hausu feels less like a movie than it does an experiment. Yes, it succeeds in what it sets out to do, but my goodness. I just can't quite comprehend what I sat through, and it may take quite some time for me to fully digest the entire shebang. In fact, that statement may actually be the strongest compliment that I can give this flick. The plot is simplistic in nature (the whole "friends travel to a haunted house" formula), but insanely wacky in its execution. The imagination and nearly-euphoric feelings that director Nobuhiko Obayashi and his crew manage to conjure are nothing short of mesmerizing, yet dizzyingly peculiar. If you are curious about laying your eyes upon something that you don't see every day, Hausu is available to purchase on DVD and Blu-ray from Criterion (yes, really!), and can be viewed on the streaming service known as Filmstruck.
I'm uncertain about whether either source would be willing to provide you with psychedelics to accompany you during your session though.
Tomorrow, the late, great Wes Craven makes his first appearance for this year's iteration of Unseen Terror, and the results of one particular release could generate some real electricity!
No comments:
Post a Comment