.gif)
House (1977 film)
Encyclopedia
is a 1977 Japanese horror film
directed and produced by Nobuhiko Obayashi
. The film stars mostly non professional actors with only Kimiko Ikegami
and Yōko Minamida
having any notable previous acting experience. The film is about a schoolgirl traveling with her six classmates to her ailing aunt's country home, where they come face to face with supernatural events as the girls are, one by one, devoured by the home.
The film company Toho
approached Obayashi with the suggestion to make a film like Jaws
. Influenced by ideas from his daughter Chigumi, Obayashi developed ideas for a script that was written by Chiho Katsura. After the script was green-lit, the film was put on hold for two years as no director at Toho wanted to direct House. Obayashi promoted the film during this time period until he was given the right to direct it from the studio. The film was a box office hit in Japan but received negative reviews from critics. House received a wide release in 2009 and 2010 in North America where it received more favorable reviews.
) has plans for a summer vacation with her father (Saho Sasazawa) who had been in Italy scoring film music. Her father returns home and surprises Gorgeous by announcing she has a new stepmother, Ryoko Ema (Haruko Wanibuchi). This upsets Gorgeous as her mother had passed away years earlier. Gorgeous goes to her bedroom and writes a letter to her aunt asking if she could come visit her this summer instead. Gorgeous' aunt replies and allows her to come visit. Gorgeous invites her six friends, Prof (Ai Matsubara), Melody (Eriko Tanaka), Kung Fu (Miki Jinbo), Mac (Mieko Sato), Sweet (Masayo Miyako) and Fantasy (Kumiko Oba) to come along with her. On arriving at the aunt's house, the girls are greeted by Gorgeous' aunt (Yōko Minamida
) to whom they present a watermelon
.
After a tour of the home, the girls leave the watermelon in a well to keep it refrigerated. Mac later goes to retrieve the watermelon and does not return. When Fantasy goes to retrieve the watermelon from the well, she finds Mac's head, which flies in the air and bites Fantasy's buttocks before she escapes. The other girls also begin to encounter other supernatural traps throughout the house. The aunt disappears after entering the broken refrigerator, and the girls are attacked or possessed by a series of items in the house, such as Gorgeous becoming possessed after using her aunt's mirror and Sweet disappearing after being attacked by mattresses. These attacks cause the girls to try to escape the house. As soon as Gorgeous walks out the door, the rest of the girls find themselves locked in. The girls try to find the aunt to unlock the door but only find Mac's severed hand in a jar. Melody begins to play the piano to keep the girl's spirits up as the girls hear Gorgeous singing upstairs. As Prof and Kung Fu go to investigate, Melody's fingers are bitten off by the piano, and it ultimately eats her whole.
Upstairs in the house, Kung Fu and Prof find Gorgeous wearing a bridal gown
, who then reveals her aunt's diary to them. Kung Fu follows Gorgeous as she leaves the room, only to find Sweet's body trapped in a grandfather clock
. Panic-driven, the remaining girls barricade the upper part of the house while Prof, Fantasy and Kung Fu read the aunt's diary. They are interrupted by the giant-sized head of Gorgeous. Gorgeous reveals that her aunt died many years ago waiting for her husband to return from World War II
and that her spirit remains, eating unmarried girls who arrive at her home. The three girls are then attacked by household items. Prof shouts to Kung Fu to attack the aunt's cat, Blanche. As Kung Fu lunges into a flying kick, she is eaten by a possessed light fixture. Kung Fu's legs manage to escape and attack the painting of Blanche on the wall. The attacked Blanche portrait spurts blood, causing the room to flood. Prof tries to read the diary to solve the problem, but is pulled under the blood by a monster jar. Fantasy sees Gorgeous in the bridal gown and paddles towards her. Gorgeous morphs into her aunt and her mother as she cradles Fantasy. In the morning, Ryoko arrives at the house and finds Gorgeous in the bridal gown. Gorgeous tells Ryoko that her friends will wake up soon and that they will be hungry.
, a proposition came from the Toho
film studio for Nobuhiko Obayashi
to develop a similar script. To find inspiration for the story, Obayashi discussed ideas with his pre-teen daughter Chigumi Obyashi. Nobuhiko sought her ideas, believing that adults "only think about things they understand...everything stays on that boring human level" while "children can come up with things that can't be explained". Several of Chigumi's ideas were included in House such as a reflection in a mirror attacking the viewer, a watermelon being pulled out of a well appearing like a human head, and a house that eats girls. Other themes Chigumi suggested drew upon her own childhood fears. These fears included a pile of futons falling on her that felt like a monster attacking her, a large loud clock at her grandparents home, and getting her fingers caught in between her piano keys. Nobuhiko shared these story ideas with screenwriter Chiho Katsura. These ideas reminded Katura of a short story by Walter de la Mare
about an old woman who is visited by her granddaughters who then puts them in a trunk.
Obayashi incorporated themes of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
into the script. Obayashi was born in Hiroshima and lost all his childhood friends from these bombings. Obayashi applied these themes with the plot element of a woman's ghost waiting for her lover's return from World War II. The woman's bitterness about the war turns her into an evil spirit that devours the girls who were unaffected by the bombings. Obayashi and Chino had worked previously a script titled Hanagatami before being assigned to House, which made the screenwriting process easy for both of them. Obayashi titled the script House as he felt that a foreign title for a Japanese film would be "taboo".
. No directors at Toho were interested in directing the film as they felt it would end their career. Obayashi proposed that he would direct it but was turned down as he was not a staff member at Toho. House did not start filming until two years after the script's completion. Toho allowed Obayashi to announce that film was green-lit and began promoting the film by passing out business cards which advertised the film. In the 1960s, Obayashi created a short film titled Emotion that was popular at Japanese universities and event halls. Fans of his television commercial
and film work helped him promote House before it was even in production. Products based on House that were released included manga
, a novelization of the script and a radio drama
. The soundtrack for the film was created and released before the film was made. Asei Kobayashi, who worked with Obayashi on his television commercials, contributed the piano pieces for the film's soundtrack. Kobayashi felt that younger people should contribute to the film's soundtrack and suggested Mickie Yoshino and his band Godiego
should contribute songs based on Yoshino's piano pieces.
The majority of the cast House were not established actors and were people Obayashi worked with on his commercials and independent films. During the two year waiting period to start filming House, Obayashi created several commercials and began casting the seven girls from models who were in his commercials. The most experienced members of the main cast were Kimiko Ikegami
and Yōko Minamida
. Obayashi was friends with Minamida who he filmed in commercials for Calpis
. Ikegami was mostly working television and theater at the time and worried that taking the role of the older woman would have a negative effect on the roles she would be subsequently offered, but still agreed to play the part. The country music singer Kiyohiko Ozaki, who plays Mr.Togo in the film, was cast because he was friends with Obayashi through their shared hobby of horseback riding. Other roles were filled by members of the crew and their families; for example, Nobuhiko Obayashi's daughter Chigumi plays the little girl, and the film's production designer plays the shoe maker.
House was filmed on one of Toho's largest sets, where Obayashi shot the film without a storyboard over a period of about two months. Obayashi described the attitude on the set as very upbeat as he often skipped, sang and played quiz games with the younger actresses on the set. Despite having fun on the set, members of the Toho crew felt the film was nonsense. Obayashi found the acting of the seven girls to be poor while trying to direct them verbally. He began playing the film's soundtrack on set, which changed the way the girls were acting in the film as they got into the spirit of the music. Actress Kimiko Ikegami was uncomfortable about a nude scene in the film. To make her more comfortable, Yoko Minamida also took off her clothes. After Obayashi saw Minamida nude, he included a nude scene for her in the film which was not in the original script.
Obayashi already had experience with special effects from his work on television commercials. Obayashi and the cameraman oversaw the special effects for the film. Obayashi desired the special effects to look unrealistic, as if a child created them. For the scene in which Ai Matsubara's character vanishes under the blood, Obayashi had her suspended nude, pouring buckets of blue paint on her to create a blue-screen chroma key
effect where the blue colored parts of her body would deteriorate on camera. The outcome of a lot of these effects would be unknown until the film was completed. Obayashi stated that sometimes the effects did not turn out how he originally envisioned them.
with the romance film Pure Hearts in Mud. Toho did not expect House to be successful, but the film became a great hit. The film became specifically popular with a youth audience. House was never shown in the United States until the distribution rights were bought by Janus Films
to be released as part of their Eclipse
line of DVDs. Eclipse was originally conceived as a possible sub-label for cult films for the company. Janus soon began getting requests for theatrical screenings of the film. Janus initiated a small tour of theatrical showings, including two sold-out shows at the 2009 New York Asian Film Festival
. In January 2010, House began being shown theatrically across North America.
House was released by the Masters of Cinema
label in the United Kingdom on DVD. Bonus features on the disc included interviews with the cast and crew and the theatrical trailer. House was released by The Criterion Collection
on DVD and Blu-ray on October 26, 2010. Bonus features on the disc included a making-of feature with interviews with the crew, Obayashi's short film Emotion (1966), and an appreciation video featuring director Ti West
.
for Best New Director in 1978 for House.
On Houses theatrical screenings across North America, the film began to receive generally favorable reviews. House was The New York Times
critics pick stating that "Mr. Obayashi has created a true fever dream of a film, one in which the young female imagination — that of his daughter, Gorgeous or both — yields memorable results." The Seattle Times
gave House three out of four stars, stating that what the film "lacks in technical wizardry it more than makes up for in playful ingenuity, injecting cheesy effects into outrageously stylized set pieces." Slant Magazine
gave the film three stars out of four, calling it "equal parts brilliant, baffling, ridiculous, and unwatchable." The New York Post gave the film three and a half stars out of four praising the film's originality, comparing it to the work of directors Dario Argento
and Guy Maddin
. indieWire
including House in their list of "Haunted House films worth discussing" calling it "the cheeriest, most infectious blood bath in cinematic history." In 2009, the Japanese film magazine Kinema Junpo
placed House on at number 160 on their list of top 200 Japanese films.
The Austin Chronicle gave House a mixed review, saying that "there's surprisingly little to recommend House as a film. But as an experience, well, that's a whole other story."
The Village Voice
gave the film a mixed review, saying that "Contemporary Japanese pop culture makes the hophead nonsense of House look quaint by comparison... though it plays like a retarded hybrid of Rocky Horror
and Whispering Corridors
, it is, moment to moment, its own kind of movie hijinks." The Boston Globe
gave the film two stars out of four, opining that films by Sam Raimi
and Peter Jackson
had attempted similar styled films with better success.
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
directed and produced by Nobuhiko Obayashi
Nobuhiko Obayashi
is a Japanese director, screenwriter and editor of films and television advertisements who is well known for his surreal visual style. He began his career as a pioneering figure in Japanese experimental film during the 1960s before transitioning to directing more mainstream works such as television...
. The film stars mostly non professional actors with only Kimiko Ikegami
Kimiko Ikegami
is a Japanese actress. Born in Manhattan, New York City, she moved to Kyoto at age 3. Kimiko graduated from Horikoshi High School in Nakano, Tokyo and subsequently attended Tamagawa University. She is closely related to the Bandō Mitsugorō kabuki actors: her grandfather was the eighth, her uncle...
and Yōko Minamida
Yoko Minamida
was a Japanese actress. She was diagnosed with Alzheimers in November 2008, and a TV documentary was made about her condition and the efforts of her husband, actor Hiroyuki Nagato, to care for her...
having any notable previous acting experience. The film is about a schoolgirl traveling with her six classmates to her ailing aunt's country home, where they come face to face with supernatural events as the girls are, one by one, devoured by the home.
The film company Toho
Toho
is a Japanese film, theater production, and distribution company. It is headquartered in Yūrakuchō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group...
approached Obayashi with the suggestion to make a film like Jaws
Jaws (film)
Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...
. Influenced by ideas from his daughter Chigumi, Obayashi developed ideas for a script that was written by Chiho Katsura. After the script was green-lit, the film was put on hold for two years as no director at Toho wanted to direct House. Obayashi promoted the film during this time period until he was given the right to direct it from the studio. The film was a box office hit in Japan but received negative reviews from critics. House received a wide release in 2009 and 2010 in North America where it received more favorable reviews.
Plot
In Japan, a young girl nicknamed Gorgeous (Kimiko IkegamiKimiko Ikegami
is a Japanese actress. Born in Manhattan, New York City, she moved to Kyoto at age 3. Kimiko graduated from Horikoshi High School in Nakano, Tokyo and subsequently attended Tamagawa University. She is closely related to the Bandō Mitsugorō kabuki actors: her grandfather was the eighth, her uncle...
) has plans for a summer vacation with her father (Saho Sasazawa) who had been in Italy scoring film music. Her father returns home and surprises Gorgeous by announcing she has a new stepmother, Ryoko Ema (Haruko Wanibuchi). This upsets Gorgeous as her mother had passed away years earlier. Gorgeous goes to her bedroom and writes a letter to her aunt asking if she could come visit her this summer instead. Gorgeous' aunt replies and allows her to come visit. Gorgeous invites her six friends, Prof (Ai Matsubara), Melody (Eriko Tanaka), Kung Fu (Miki Jinbo), Mac (Mieko Sato), Sweet (Masayo Miyako) and Fantasy (Kumiko Oba) to come along with her. On arriving at the aunt's house, the girls are greeted by Gorgeous' aunt (Yōko Minamida
Yoko Minamida
was a Japanese actress. She was diagnosed with Alzheimers in November 2008, and a TV documentary was made about her condition and the efforts of her husband, actor Hiroyuki Nagato, to care for her...
) to whom they present a watermelon
Watermelon
Watermelon is a vine-like flowering plant originally from southern Africa. Its fruit, which is also called watermelon, is a special kind referred to by botanists as a pepo, a berry which has a thick rind and fleshy center...
.
After a tour of the home, the girls leave the watermelon in a well to keep it refrigerated. Mac later goes to retrieve the watermelon and does not return. When Fantasy goes to retrieve the watermelon from the well, she finds Mac's head, which flies in the air and bites Fantasy's buttocks before she escapes. The other girls also begin to encounter other supernatural traps throughout the house. The aunt disappears after entering the broken refrigerator, and the girls are attacked or possessed by a series of items in the house, such as Gorgeous becoming possessed after using her aunt's mirror and Sweet disappearing after being attacked by mattresses. These attacks cause the girls to try to escape the house. As soon as Gorgeous walks out the door, the rest of the girls find themselves locked in. The girls try to find the aunt to unlock the door but only find Mac's severed hand in a jar. Melody begins to play the piano to keep the girl's spirits up as the girls hear Gorgeous singing upstairs. As Prof and Kung Fu go to investigate, Melody's fingers are bitten off by the piano, and it ultimately eats her whole.
Upstairs in the house, Kung Fu and Prof find Gorgeous wearing a bridal gown
Wedding dress
A wedding dress or wedding gown is the clothing worn by a bride during a wedding ceremony. Color, style and ceremonial importance of the gown can depend on the religion and culture of the wedding participants.- Western culture :...
, who then reveals her aunt's diary to them. Kung Fu follows Gorgeous as she leaves the room, only to find Sweet's body trapped in a grandfather clock
Longcase clock
A longcase clock, also tall-case clock, floor clock, or grandfather clock, is a tall, freestanding, weight-driven pendulum clock with the pendulum held inside the tower, or waist of the case. Clocks of this style are commonly 1.8–2.4 metres tall...
. Panic-driven, the remaining girls barricade the upper part of the house while Prof, Fantasy and Kung Fu read the aunt's diary. They are interrupted by the giant-sized head of Gorgeous. Gorgeous reveals that her aunt died many years ago waiting for her husband to return from World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and that her spirit remains, eating unmarried girls who arrive at her home. The three girls are then attacked by household items. Prof shouts to Kung Fu to attack the aunt's cat, Blanche. As Kung Fu lunges into a flying kick, she is eaten by a possessed light fixture. Kung Fu's legs manage to escape and attack the painting of Blanche on the wall. The attacked Blanche portrait spurts blood, causing the room to flood. Prof tries to read the diary to solve the problem, but is pulled under the blood by a monster jar. Fantasy sees Gorgeous in the bridal gown and paddles towards her. Gorgeous morphs into her aunt and her mother as she cradles Fantasy. In the morning, Ryoko arrives at the house and finds Gorgeous in the bridal gown. Gorgeous tells Ryoko that her friends will wake up soon and that they will be hungry.
Development
Following the success of the American film JawsJaws (film)
Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...
, a proposition came from the Toho
Toho
is a Japanese film, theater production, and distribution company. It is headquartered in Yūrakuchō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group...
film studio for Nobuhiko Obayashi
Nobuhiko Obayashi
is a Japanese director, screenwriter and editor of films and television advertisements who is well known for his surreal visual style. He began his career as a pioneering figure in Japanese experimental film during the 1960s before transitioning to directing more mainstream works such as television...
to develop a similar script. To find inspiration for the story, Obayashi discussed ideas with his pre-teen daughter Chigumi Obyashi. Nobuhiko sought her ideas, believing that adults "only think about things they understand...everything stays on that boring human level" while "children can come up with things that can't be explained". Several of Chigumi's ideas were included in House such as a reflection in a mirror attacking the viewer, a watermelon being pulled out of a well appearing like a human head, and a house that eats girls. Other themes Chigumi suggested drew upon her own childhood fears. These fears included a pile of futons falling on her that felt like a monster attacking her, a large loud clock at her grandparents home, and getting her fingers caught in between her piano keys. Nobuhiko shared these story ideas with screenwriter Chiho Katsura. These ideas reminded Katura of a short story by Walter de la Mare
Walter de la Mare
Walter John de la Mare , OM CH was an English poet, short story writer and novelist, probably best remembered for his works for children and the poem "The Listeners"....
about an old woman who is visited by her granddaughters who then puts them in a trunk.
Obayashi incorporated themes of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...
into the script. Obayashi was born in Hiroshima and lost all his childhood friends from these bombings. Obayashi applied these themes with the plot element of a woman's ghost waiting for her lover's return from World War II. The woman's bitterness about the war turns her into an evil spirit that devours the girls who were unaffected by the bombings. Obayashi and Chino had worked previously a script titled Hanagatami before being assigned to House, which made the screenwriting process easy for both of them. Obayashi titled the script House as he felt that a foreign title for a Japanese film would be "taboo".
Pre-production
The script for House was green-lit shortly after being presented to TohoToho
is a Japanese film, theater production, and distribution company. It is headquartered in Yūrakuchō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group...
. No directors at Toho were interested in directing the film as they felt it would end their career. Obayashi proposed that he would direct it but was turned down as he was not a staff member at Toho. House did not start filming until two years after the script's completion. Toho allowed Obayashi to announce that film was green-lit and began promoting the film by passing out business cards which advertised the film. In the 1960s, Obayashi created a short film titled Emotion that was popular at Japanese universities and event halls. Fans of his television commercial
Television advertisement
A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...
and film work helped him promote House before it was even in production. Products based on House that were released included manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
, a novelization of the script and a radio drama
Radio drama
Radio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...
. The soundtrack for the film was created and released before the film was made. Asei Kobayashi, who worked with Obayashi on his television commercials, contributed the piano pieces for the film's soundtrack. Kobayashi felt that younger people should contribute to the film's soundtrack and suggested Mickie Yoshino and his band Godiego
Godiego
is a popular band from Japan, consisting of the Mickie Yoshino, Yukihide Takekawa, Takami Asano, Steve Fox, and Tommy Snyder...
should contribute songs based on Yoshino's piano pieces.
The majority of the cast House were not established actors and were people Obayashi worked with on his commercials and independent films. During the two year waiting period to start filming House, Obayashi created several commercials and began casting the seven girls from models who were in his commercials. The most experienced members of the main cast were Kimiko Ikegami
Kimiko Ikegami
is a Japanese actress. Born in Manhattan, New York City, she moved to Kyoto at age 3. Kimiko graduated from Horikoshi High School in Nakano, Tokyo and subsequently attended Tamagawa University. She is closely related to the Bandō Mitsugorō kabuki actors: her grandfather was the eighth, her uncle...
and Yōko Minamida
Yoko Minamida
was a Japanese actress. She was diagnosed with Alzheimers in November 2008, and a TV documentary was made about her condition and the efforts of her husband, actor Hiroyuki Nagato, to care for her...
. Obayashi was friends with Minamida who he filmed in commercials for Calpis
Calpis
is a Japanese uncarbonated soft drink, manufactured by , headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo.The beverage has a light, somewhat milky, and slightly acidic flavor, similar to plain or vanilla-flavored yogurt or Yakult...
. Ikegami was mostly working television and theater at the time and worried that taking the role of the older woman would have a negative effect on the roles she would be subsequently offered, but still agreed to play the part. The country music singer Kiyohiko Ozaki, who plays Mr.Togo in the film, was cast because he was friends with Obayashi through their shared hobby of horseback riding. Other roles were filled by members of the crew and their families; for example, Nobuhiko Obayashi's daughter Chigumi plays the little girl, and the film's production designer plays the shoe maker.
Filming
Obayashi recalled that his producer told him that Toho was tired of losing money on comprehensible films and were ready to let Obayashi direct the House script, which they felt was incomprehensible. Toho officially green-lit the film's production after the success of the radio drama based on House. Obayashi received special permission to direct the film despite not being a member of the Toho staff.House was filmed on one of Toho's largest sets, where Obayashi shot the film without a storyboard over a period of about two months. Obayashi described the attitude on the set as very upbeat as he often skipped, sang and played quiz games with the younger actresses on the set. Despite having fun on the set, members of the Toho crew felt the film was nonsense. Obayashi found the acting of the seven girls to be poor while trying to direct them verbally. He began playing the film's soundtrack on set, which changed the way the girls were acting in the film as they got into the spirit of the music. Actress Kimiko Ikegami was uncomfortable about a nude scene in the film. To make her more comfortable, Yoko Minamida also took off her clothes. After Obayashi saw Minamida nude, he included a nude scene for her in the film which was not in the original script.
Obayashi already had experience with special effects from his work on television commercials. Obayashi and the cameraman oversaw the special effects for the film. Obayashi desired the special effects to look unrealistic, as if a child created them. For the scene in which Ai Matsubara's character vanishes under the blood, Obayashi had her suspended nude, pouring buckets of blue paint on her to create a blue-screen chroma key
Chroma key
Chroma key compositing is a technique for compositing two images together. A color range in the top layer is made transparent, revealing another image behind. The chroma keying technique is commonly used in video production and post-production...
effect where the blue colored parts of her body would deteriorate on camera. The outcome of a lot of these effects would be unknown until the film was completed. Obayashi stated that sometimes the effects did not turn out how he originally envisioned them.
Release
House was released on July 30, 1977 in Japan. It was originally released as a double featureDouble feature
The double feature, also known as a double bill, was a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theatre managers would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which one feature film and various short subject reels would be shown.The double feature, also known as...
with the romance film Pure Hearts in Mud. Toho did not expect House to be successful, but the film became a great hit. The film became specifically popular with a youth audience. House was never shown in the United States until the distribution rights were bought by Janus Films
Janus Films
Janus Films is a film distribution company. It was one of the first distributors to bring what are now regarded as masterpieces of world cinema to the United States...
to be released as part of their Eclipse
Eclipse (DVD)
Eclipse from the Criterion Collection is a brand for a line of DVD film series released by the Criterion Collection. It debuted on March 27, 2007....
line of DVDs. Eclipse was originally conceived as a possible sub-label for cult films for the company. Janus soon began getting requests for theatrical screenings of the film. Janus initiated a small tour of theatrical showings, including two sold-out shows at the 2009 New York Asian Film Festival
New York Asian Film Festival
The New York Asian Film Festival was first held in 2002, growing out of the previous year's New York Korean Film Festival...
. In January 2010, House began being shown theatrically across North America.
House was released by the Masters of Cinema
Masters of Cinema
The Masters of Cinema organization began as a website dedicated to the most well-regarded film directors in the world. Founded by a diverse international group of like-minded film enthusiasts: Jan Bielawski, a mathematician; Doug Cummings, a graphic artist and freelance critic; Trond Trondsen, a Ph.D...
label in the United Kingdom on DVD. Bonus features on the disc included interviews with the cast and crew and the theatrical trailer. House was released by The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection is a video-distribution company selling "important classic and contemporary films" to film aficionados. The Criterion series is noted for helping to standardize the letterbox format for home video, bonus features, and special editions...
on DVD and Blu-ray on October 26, 2010. Bonus features on the disc included a making-of feature with interviews with the crew, Obayashi's short film Emotion (1966), and an appreciation video featuring director Ti West
Ti West
Ti West is an American film director, best known for his work in horror films.- Early life:West was born in Wilmington, Delaware. He was featured in a 2001 Fall issue of Teen People Magazine...
.
Reception
The film did not receive many reviews in Japan on its initial release. The general reception among Japanese critics who did review the film was negative. Nobuhiko Obayashi won the Blue Ribbon AwardBlue Ribbon Awards
The are film-specific prizes awarded solely by movie critics and writers in Tokyo, Japan.The awards were established in 1950 by which is composed of film correspondents from seven Tokyo-based sports newspapers...
for Best New Director in 1978 for House.
On Houses theatrical screenings across North America, the film began to receive generally favorable reviews. House was The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
critics pick stating that "Mr. Obayashi has created a true fever dream of a film, one in which the young female imagination — that of his daughter, Gorgeous or both — yields memorable results." The Seattle Times
The Seattle Times
The Seattle Times is a newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, US. It is the largest daily newspaper in the state of Washington. It has been, since the demise in 2009 of the printed version of the rival Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle's only major daily print newspaper.-History:The Seattle Times...
gave House three out of four stars, stating that what the film "lacks in technical wizardry it more than makes up for in playful ingenuity, injecting cheesy effects into outrageously stylized set pieces." Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...
gave the film three stars out of four, calling it "equal parts brilliant, baffling, ridiculous, and unwatchable." The New York Post gave the film three and a half stars out of four praising the film's originality, comparing it to the work of directors Dario Argento
Dario Argento
Dario Argento is an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in the horror film genre, particularly in the subgenre known as giallo, and for his influence on modern horror and slasher movies....
and Guy Maddin
Guy Maddin
Guy Maddin, OM is a Canadian screenwriter, director, cinematographer and film editor of both features and short films from Winnipeg, Manitoba...
. indieWire
IndieWire
indieWIRE is a daily news site for the independent film community. It covers indie, documentary and foreign language films, as well industry news, film festival reports, filmmaker interviews and movie reviews...
including House in their list of "Haunted House films worth discussing" calling it "the cheeriest, most infectious blood bath in cinematic history." In 2009, the Japanese film magazine Kinema Junpo
Kinema Junpo
, commonly called , is a Japanese film magazine which began publication in July 1919. The magazine was founded by a group of four students, including Saburō Tanaka, at the Tokyo Institute of Technology . In that first month, it was published three times on days with a "1" in them. These first three...
placed House on at number 160 on their list of top 200 Japanese films.
The Austin Chronicle gave House a mixed review, saying that "there's surprisingly little to recommend House as a film. But as an experience, well, that's a whole other story."
The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
gave the film a mixed review, saying that "Contemporary Japanese pop culture makes the hophead nonsense of House look quaint by comparison... though it plays like a retarded hybrid of Rocky Horror
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the 1975 film adaptation of the British rock musical stageplay, The Rocky Horror Show, written by Richard O'Brien. The film is a parody of B-movie, science fiction and horror films of the late 1940s through early 1970s. Director Jim Sharman collaborated on the...
and Whispering Corridors
Whispering Corridors
Whispering Corridors is a 1998 South Korean horror film about a girl's high school. It was part of the explosion in Korean cinema following the liberalization of censorship in the aftermath of the end of the country's military dictatorship, and makes a strong social commentary on authoritarianism...
, it is, moment to moment, its own kind of movie hijinks." The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
gave the film two stars out of four, opining that films by Sam Raimi
Sam Raimi
Samuel Marshall "Sam" Raimi is an American film director, producer, actor and writer. He is best known for directing cult horror films like the Evil Dead series, Darkman and Drag Me to Hell, as well as the blockbuster Spider-Man films and the producer of the successful TV series Hercules: The...
and Peter Jackson
Peter Jackson
Sir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...
had attempted similar styled films with better success.