Cinema
House
ハウス
Nobuhiko Obayashi · 1977
Synopsis
A teenage girl from Tokyo, nicknamed Gorgeous, was looking forward to a holiday with her father, who instead introduces her to the woman he is going to marry, according to Moria. She refuses to go away with them, writes to an aunt who agrees to take her in, and takes six schoolmates to the aunt's country house. Moria recalls that this aunt is still waiting for a fiancé shot down during the war. Shortly after they arrive, one of the girls disappears while fetching a watermelon cooling in the well, and the house begins to set traps for the others.
Context
Tōhō wanted a film capable of answering the success of Jaws, according to the press kit of Potemkine Films. The director drew part of the ideas from his daughter Chigumi, then a child. The screenplay is by Katsura Chiho; the music, by Kobayashi Asei and Mickie Yoshino, with songs by the group Godiego. Released on 30 July 1977 and distributed by Tōhō, it was received coldly by Japanese critics but drew a young audience. Little seen outside Japan, it was rediscovered in 2009 in the United States.
Who it is for
Eighty-eight minutes of horror mixed with comedy, in a house that devours its young visitors one by one.
Prizes and reception
Snubbed on its release by critics in Japan, it found its audience among young people, then a cult following abroad after its rediscovery.
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