Even Lewis Carroll would watch this movie and go "Dude, lay off the drugs." I've been warned numerous times in the past how insanely weird this movie is, but I still wasn't prepared. Released in 1977, Hausu is about 7 nicknamed friends in a haunted house, essentially. Gorgeous' father is getting married to a new woman, and she's going on vacation with them. Gorgeous refuses to go with them and instead takes her friends to stay at her aunt's house in the countryside. So Gorgeous, Fantasy, Mac, Melody, Kung Fu, Prof, and Sweet (and Gorgeous' new cat, Blanche), must face the insanity of the old house and the evils within trying to kill them. And what we're given is one whacked-out comedy/horror film.I'm literally at a loss for words. The closest description I can really give is... just imagine if Sam Raimi set out to make a bizarre Japanese-style horror/comedy homage to David Lynch from the start, but then took as much acid and shrooms while filming as humanly possible without overdosing. Then multiply that image by about 50, and you'll probably have a rough idea of what this movie is kinda like. Because honestly, there's no way to prepare yourself for this movie. You just have to see it to believe it, and even then you still might not believe it. I won't even bother trying to explain how it's weird or give examples, because it's in the very essence of the film in every second of every frame. I've never seen anything like this before.
To be fair, through all its incoherency, it at least tells a somewhat coherent story (somewhat). It's mainly your basic haunted house story... kind of. The characters each have their own distinct personalities, as well. While not the main character, the best character is easily Kung Fu. She's hot and has mad fighting skills and really knows how to fight chandeliers and logs and... anything else that attacks them. It also doesn't hurt that in pretty much the entire second half of the film, she's in essentially panties the entire time. They could have been super-short short shorts. It was hard to tell with everything going on. Point is, Kung Fu was a fun character.
Another thing that really threw me off was that there's a main theme to this movie that repeats throughout the film (and they even play it on piano at numerous points). It's very reminiscent (and I mean very) of the main theme from Up (like the one played during the opening montage sequence). And to play that in this movie while bringing back memories of that film... was an even more surreal mental experience.
I have to stop now, because there's nothing else I can tell you. If you're up for a weird movie (understatement), I definitely suggest it. And even though it's totally bizarre, I didn't find it off-putting. I was completely drawn into it, wondering what was going to happen next. It kept me on my toes. This is a movie where literally anything can happen--anything. And I'm sure if I ever rewatched it, I'd find even more stuff that I missed this time through. Hell, had I not been paying as close of attention as I was, I probably would have missed the laughing watermelon in the background of one scene. Yeah. So... if you're up for it, check it out. I'll just end repeating something from another review I saw elsewhere: Do not watch this movie while on drugs; that'll probably kill you.
WTF
It's a trippy movie for sure and while I was a bit apprehensive at the beginning, but the end the bizarre style won me over. I've started to grow an affection for surreal horror in the past couple of years.
ReplyDeleteAnd I fell in love with Kung Fu. Such a fun character.
Haha - I was just listening to French Toast Sunday and they kept mentioning House and I was like, I know they're not talking about the TV show. I've never really heard of this flick, but I've seen that poster image used as an avatar plenty.
ReplyDeleteSounds like fun.
Yeah, I just about fell out of my chair when I saw you were really kicking off the 50/50 with this film. It should get easier from there.
ReplyDeleteCan we assume that this was your most affectionate WTF rating to date?
James: Yeah, it won me over, too. And yeah, Kung Fu was awesome.
ReplyDeleteDylan: It is quite fun, once you let yourself go with it.
Nolahn: Haha, I don't know about that (it getting easier). I just finished watching Videodrome... but yeah, this was a very affectionate WTF rating.
Nice Review I'm glad more people are seeing this. It's errie how both music themes of this and "Up" are simular
ReplyDeleteWhat's even more F'ed up is that it was the director's 8 year old daughter who thought up the orginal story. We need their kids to come here and write movies if that's the case.
In total agreement about Kung Fu. Badass.
ReplyDeleteJust saw this by my lonesome recently, probably should have seen it in a packed theater a la The Room. Still, points for originality. Nearly lost me when the teacher kept yelling "Banana!" though.
Yeah, this would be fun with a group. I don't recall the banana part, but there's so much insanity in this film, I'm not surprised one thing slipped my mind.
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