WATCH THIS: HOUSE

Had been waiting for months and months to catch a peek of the new print of Nobuhiko Obayashi's House.  Janus Film has been touring this brilliantly crazy film around the country for months now and if you've already been lucky to have seen it in some packed theater in the waning hours of the night, you'll understand my new found obsession with it.

I don't know a lot about Japanese culture, but somehow this strange, creepy bit of playful horror seems to hit the nail on the head in terms of everything I've ever thought about it.  The story of a group of seven girls who retire to a distant relatives house for summer vacation is one fourth hilarious 80s horror film, though the film was released in the late 1970s, a fourth teenage romance, and perhaps half, if not more, what-the-fuck.  From frame one this film holds nothing back in embracing the sort of brightly colored, tube-socked aesthetic of the late 70s/early 80s, and I was reminded of a sort hyper-realized take on every American horror film that eeked its way in to the cinemas around this time. 

I'm having difficulty even typing about this film because of the experience of watching it in a theater surrounded by hyped up fans of the film is more than I can explain.  Know these things:

-  a girl is eaten by a piano in this film
-  there is an evil, lazer-eyed kitty named Blanche
-  there is a hungry teen named Mac who ends up headless and biting on rear-ends
-  Kung Fu is a character in the film and with much to do she does just that
-  I left this film thinking that any lo-fi video producer worth his salt today has seen this film over and over again and has taken notes on burning make-up application and hyper-color piano playing
-  bananas, bananas, bananas

Go see this film.

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Criterion Counsel: In love with the film, but not finished just yet.