FOREIGN HORROR: Hausu (1977)

 

House  is a film that I watched way too early in life. Even though it was actually intended for children...written by a child, it still managed to scare the hell out of me. These days...the film is more of a laugh riot and its absolute abandonment of all things sane make it an absolute marvel to behold. Come...journey with me into...Hausu.

We wrote briefly about House  earlier in the week. It is a film that stitches together many different styles of cinema. From animation to stop-motion to practical special effects to hallucinatory drug-induced nightmares. Usually, whenever I watch the film, I feel like I just did peyote. It just has that kind of effect on me. Of course, I would never do peyote. I'm more of a paint huffer. But, that's neither here nor there.

 

Hausu  represents a revolutionary time in Japanese horror cinema when new concepts were being developed. You can see seeds of ideas being planted throughout the running time of the film. The inky strands of black hair creeping up on an unsuspecting victim. Or the creepy possessed doll bit. There's even stuff in there that was too weird to ever be duplicated. Like the flesh-eating piano concept...or some of the other loony stuff that goes on. You get the feeling that an 11 year old wrote this film. And, well...that feeling would be a correct one.

Check out a video review of Hausu...






Badass Hausu  poster by Trevor Henderson. Check out more of his awesome work HERE!



Thanks for reading,

bryan.