Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi • 1977 • Japan
Starring Kimiko Ikegami, Miki Jinbo, Kumiko Oba
How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi’s indescribable 1977 movie HOUSE (HAUSU)? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of “Scooby-Doo” as directed by Mario Bava? Any of the above will do for this hallucinatory head trip about a schoolgirl who travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt’s creaky country home and comes face-to-face with evil spirits, a demonic house cat, a bloodthirsty piano, and other ghoulish visions, all realized by Obayashi via mattes, animation, and collage effects. Equally absurd and nightmarish, HOUSE might have been beamed to Earth from some other planet. Never before available on home video in the United States, it’s one of the most exciting cult discoveries in years.
Up Next in Horror
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Eraserhead
Directed by David Lynch • 1977 • United States
Starring Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Judith Anna RobertsDavid Lynch’s 1977 debut feature, ERASERHEAD, is both a lasting cult sensation and a work of extraordinary craft and beauty. With its mesmerizing black-and-white photography by Frederick El...
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Picnic at Hanging Rock
Directed by Peter Weir • 1975 • Australia
Starring Rachel Roberts, Vivean Gray, Helen MorseThis sensual and striking chronicle of a disappearance and its aftermath put director Peter Weir on the map and helped usher in a new era of Australian cinema. Based on an acclaimed 1967 novel by Joan Lin...
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Spirits of the Dead
Directed by Federico Fellini, Louis Malle, and Roger Vadim • 1968 • France, Italy
Federico Fellini, Louis Malle, and Roger Vadim each direct a tale from Edgar Allan Poe in this haunting anthology film.
