Horror Month: Hausu (House, 1977)

           This is one of the weirdest films that I've ever seen. House is the almost nonsensical story of seven teenage girls who go to one of the girl's aunt's house for a summer of relaxing, only to be methodically  devoured and murdered by the house (or a demonic cat, or ghosts, it's really hard to tell sometimes). In terms of plot and characters, House is pretty conventional. This is basic 1970's horror movie stuff. The girls even have stupid names that correspond to their one-dimensional personalities. The main character/hot one is called Gorgeous, the tough, athletic one is named Kung Fu, the smart one that can't see anything without he glasses is Prof, and the girl who plays instruments and loves music is named Melody. Yeah, pretty lame. 

         But House's strengths aren't in it's plot or characters. Just judging it by those, it's a fairly lame movie. What makes this film remarkable and entertaining is it's ingenuity, both visually and in terms of editing. All of the sequences where the protagonists are attacked by the house are really, really strange. Most of them left me going "What the heck did I just watch?". I was especially confused after scenes where a character is quite literally eaten by a piano only to turn up later trapped in a grandfather clock that's oozing both blood and another unidentified green liquid, and another memorable one where another girl is attacked my mattresses. Mattresses. Pretty much anything in the house is apparently capable of killing people, near the end Kung Fu is eaten alive by a deranged light fixture. All of these scenes contain retro animation and ridiculously crude special effects, which are hilarious and very charming. Seeing the screen flicker different colours while a victim screams at the stump oozing cartoony animated blood where her hand used to be is really entertaining, and though they're not believable in the slightest the special effects are extremely creative. I won't soon forget the climactic scene near the end when a painting of a cat spews out blood until it fills up the entire room, or when one of the final survivors is pulled into this lake of blood by what appears to be a jar with teeth. It's just so over the top you can't help being entertained by it. And I definitely was.