House, which is currently screening at the New Beverly Cinema - although a must-see film - is difficult to describe in words (for they do no justice to the unique intriguing visuals which captivate audiences for starters).
Some have tried, though.
Joshua Rothkopf (Time Out New York) lauded the flick with four stars and gushed:
"Like a stream of conciousness nightmare sprung from a troubled head resting on a hot-pink pillow."
I couldn't have said it better myself!
Meanwhile, Jim Ridley (The Nashville Scene) urged that filmgoers:
"Run. Wake your neighbor. Slap your children. Eye your cat with suspicion. Every once in a blue-screen moon, a movie will remind even the most jaded of cult-film aficionados that, no, in fact, they have not seen everything."
"Delirious, deranged, gonzo or just gone, baby, gone - no single adjective or even a pileup does justice to House, " underscored Manohla Dargis (The New York Times).
One of my favorites critiques was penned by Matt Singer @ IFC.com:
"This phantasmagoric head-trip has to be one of the strangest and most surreal movies ever made."
In the final analysis, HOUSE is steeped with all of the above, and so much more.
In particular, I was enthralled with the imaginative mix - and interplay - of sets.
Remarkable!
In one moment, characters are traipsing with great gusto through a breathtaking forest - the next - they are chit-chatting in front of a panoramic scene that has been artfully (and surreally) etched on man-made backdrops with startling effect.
Moments of pure whimsy, outlandish impromptu "burps" of sheer genius - and a storyline that goes way beyond bump in the night - mesmerize (to put it mildly!).
In a nutshell, the plot goes something like this.
Oshare ("gorgeous" to her friends) becomes annoyed with her father who has begun dating a younger overbearing woman she finds offensive.
Furious about the prospect of having to share precious vacation memories with the dragon woman, Oshare invites a handful of her close friends to take a jaunt through the countryside instead, to visit an old aunt she hasn't set her eyes on in years.
Shortly after their celebrated arrival at the dilaphiated estate deep in the words, eerie events signal all is not well with Auntie and her living arrangements.
In fact, no one is keen to the fact, that the mysterious relative is secretly a spirit who feeds on the flesh of unmarried women.
Pique your wicked curiosity - and taste for the bizarre - yet?
Get thee to the New Beverly Cinema.
You'll be glad you sprung the seven bucks (just betcha).
Along with works by auteurs such as Shuji Terayama and Donald Richie, director Obayshi's unique original ideas greatly influenced experimental cinema throughout the 1960s in Japan.
In fact, Obayshi's avant garde techniques ended up impacting the mainstream for years to come.
In the 1970s, he began lensing a series of Japanese ads featuring well known American stars such as Kirk Douglas and Charles Bronson.
Obayashi began directing feature films in 1977 with the horror-comedy House.
The features employed a mixture of trick photography and artsy-fartsy techniques calibrated to achieve startling distinctive surreal realms beyond this or any other dimension!
He has become particularly well-known for his coming-of-age movies such as Exchange Students (1982) and Chizuko's Younger Sister (1991).
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