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For many of my generation, Japanese Horror started with the release of “Ringu” back in 1998. Horror though has a much richer history in the orient and slowly some of the earlier releases are being rediscovered for new audiences to discover the works that had an influence on what was to become known as J-Horror. One such movie is “House”, made back in 1977 by Nobuhiko Obayashi.

Angel is excited about spending summer vacation with her father, until she finds out that his new beautiful girlfriend Ryouko would be going as well. Oshare decides she will be going to her aunt’s house in the country instead. She brings with her, her friends from school – Fantasy Kung Fu, Prof, Sweet, Mac and Melody. Arriving at the house, slowly they become aware that not everything is as it appears to be with the aunt nor the house itself and are...

House (Hausu) Directed by: Nobuhiko Obayashi Written by: Chiho Katsura Starring: Kimiko Ikegami, Miki Jinbo, Kumiko Oba, Ai Matsubara Just in time for Halloween, the Criterion Collection has released director Nobuhiko Obayashi's creepy, cartoony and absurdly hilarious feature film debut House (Hausu) on DVD and Blu Ray. The film is a smorgasbord of in-camera tricks and techniques that celebrate all of the best elements of genre filmmaking while creating a completely unusual and unique cinematic experience. The synopsis on the back of the House blu ray couldn't be more appropriate, describing the film as Scooby Doo through the lens of Mario Bava. It's certainly a colourful experience that probably owes some of its imagery and effects to Italian genre films. To put it into a modern perspective, the film's aesthetics could be described as a Michel Gondry take on J-Horror. Oddly enough, Hausu was apparently Japan's direct response to...

One Of The Nuttiest, Fantastical Cult Films Of The 1970s Comes To The Criterion Collection The Movie: “House” Director: Nobuhiko Obayashi Starring: No one you actually know, but for detail's sake; Yoko Minamida, Kimiko Ikegami, Miki Jinbo, Kumiko Oba, Ai Matsubara, Mieko Sato, Eriko Tanaka and Masayo Miyako. What's It All About: Oh boy, where do we start with this one? The seven-girls-coming-of-age-in-a-haunted-house genre will never ever be the same. Off-the-wall, hallucinatory and outrageously inventive, "House" has been dubbed a gonzo horror, but is more like an experimental child-like fantasy, or a comedic psychedelic ghost story about a schoolgirl —…...

It took 33 years for Japanese director Nobuhiko Obayashi's film "House" to make its way to U.S. theaters, which is just as well.

This movie was ahead of its time in 1977, it's ahead of its time now, and will continue to be ahead of its time until some point in the future when humans communicate telepathically and sleep in nutrient-rich fluid baths. I would call it a new contender for the title of ultimate midnight movie, but midnight feels about three hours too early for something as deranged as "House." This phantasmagoric head-trip has to be one of the strangest and most surreal movies ever made.

It concerns the sometimes horrific, sometimes comedic, always psychedelic misadventures of a group of Japanese teenage girls. The gang is kind of an all-girl version of The Goonies: each is less a character than a type with her own gimmick and easily distinguishable physical features.