By Brant Lewis
Contributing Writer
President of Cinema Guild
With the arrival of October, the campus will soon bloom with lush oranges and reds alongside a much-needed autumn breeze. The changing weather also signifies the arrival of my favorite holiday, Halloween. And nothing goes better with Halloween than a great horror film.
It’s easy to recommend a conventional horror film to watch, but the 1977 Japanese horror film House defies those conventions.
House is equal parts horror and comedy. The film follows a niece and her six friends, where the niece decides to spend the summer at her aunt’s house for the summer. While at the aunt’s house, each of the girls experience the strange and frightening nature of the home, and the only outcome appears to be death.
Besides the plot, the film contains a truly unique and quite odd cinematic style for a horror film. There are bizarre transitions, hallucinogenic shot frames and colors, an unexpected musical number, and the ghost of a cat. Also, the special effects are interesting and greatly stands apart from the traditional American slasher or haunted house horror film one would watch. To say too much about the film would be a great disgrace upon the viewer. One only needs to watch House in order to fully understand the uniqueness of it.
I discovered House by purchasing a copy of the film through the Criterion Collection. I was and am still perplexed by this movie. Because of this, the movie is an interesting piece of global cinema and excels in the underrated and misunderstood genre of horror comedy. House is a film that is unfortunately unknown to most modern audiences, so do yourself a favor and rent a copy of this one of a kind genre film to experience it for yourself.