House

House

Criterion Collection Edition #539

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.

House
  • House

    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...

Extras

  • Nobuhiko Obayashi and Crew on HOUSE

    In these video interviews, recorded in 2010, director Nobuhiko Obayashi, his daughter and story scenarist Chigumi Obayashi, and screenwriter Chiho Katsura discuss the making of HOUSE, from its whimsical conception to its mind-boggling creation.

  • Ti West on HOUSE

    This new video appreciation of HOUSE’s stylistic and genre-tweaking daring features filmmaker Ti West (THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL).

  • Double Exposure: HOUSE

  • HOUSE: Trick or Truth

    Video essayist :: kogonada reveals the troubling theme within this cult favorite.

  • Emotion

    Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi • 1966 • Japan

    Nobuhiko Obayashi’s giddily experimental short—the story of a young woman who falls in love with a vampire—exhibits the boundless avant-garde visual imagination and unique approach to horror that he would soon unleash upon the world in his celebrated ...