Get Your Reps In: “House” Haunts in Time for Halloween

House (1977)

You’ve never beheld so much joy in a slasher movie as in the cult curio House (1977).

Even after floating severed heads have started biting butts and supernatural pianos have eaten fingers, the seven vacationing teenage girls trapped in the titular haunted mansion are mostly beaming as they scamper for their lives. That insane tonal ingredient is elemental to the special sauce of Nobuhiko Obayashi’s House. The film is ultimately quite earnest about its central ghost story but simply will not keep a straight face, creating an irony to the horror that’s brighter and more beguiling than any self-aware genre wink.

A critical flop upon its release in Japan, House is now celebrated among adventurous horror heads as a stylistically haywire fever dream. It plays as a string of imaginative low-budget set pieces connected only by an inimitable sensibility: part public access kids’ show (so many circle wipe edits); part dreamy romantic music video (check the vivid matte paintings); and a tradition of Japanese folk horror fighting for the last laugh. House plays Halloween Night, Oct. 31, at the Tomorrow Theater.

Also Playing:

5th Avenue: Knife+Heart (2018), Oct. 31–Nov. 2. Academy: The Beyond (1981), Oct. 29 and 30. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), Oct. 29–31. Nightmare 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985) and Nightmare 3: Dream Warriors (1987), Oct. 31. The Seventh Seal (1957), The Legend of Billie Jean (1985) and Clueless (1995), Nov. 1–6. Cinema 21: Nosferatu (1922) synced with Radiohead, Oct. 30. Halloween (1978), Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. City Lights (1931), Nov. 1. Cinemagic: Rumpelstiltskin (1995), Oct. 29. Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988), Oct. 29 and 30. Society (1989), Oct. 25. Halloween (1978), Oct. 29 and 30. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Oct. 30. Re-Animator (1985), Oct. 31. The Exorcist (1973) and An American Werewolf in London (1981), Nov. 1 and 2. Kung Pow!: Enter the Fist (2002), Nov. 3–5 and 7. The Deer Hunter (1978), Nov. 3–5 and 9. Clinton: Church of Horror Presents The Birth of Horror: A Scary Collection of Early Film Horror, Oct. 29. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Oct. 30–Nov. 2. You’re Next (2011), Oct. 31. Hollywood: Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981), Oct. 29. The Ring (2002), Oct. 31. City on Fire (1987), Nov. 2. Swept Away (1974), Nov. 3. Space Rage (1985), Nov. 4. Tomorrow: House (1977), Oct. 31. Tampopo (1985), Nov. 1. Yo No Soy Guapo (2018), Nov. 1. Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin (2018), Nov. 2.