1977’s ‘Hausu’: The funniest haunted house movie

Photo: ‘Hausu’

A decapitated head in a wishing well, a piano that eats its player and a dancing skeleton. Although this may look like a list of random spooky story ideas, they are all scenes from “Hausu”, the 1977 Japanese film by Nobuhiko Obayashi. ‘Hausu’ may have been criticized when it was first released, but it has since become a cult classic, especially among the movie-going community. Interestingly enough, the horror movie is not admired for being scary but rather admired for being fun and quirky thanks to its trippy visuals and quirky humor. ‘Hausu’ makes you feel like you’re tripping over a Halloween party in the best possible way.

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The visual marvel of ‘Hausu’

The visual wonder of “Hausu” comes from the way the film eschews realism in favor of outlandish imagery and surrealism. The film’s visual approach is based more on childish play than a desire to appear realistic. Obayashi does all the stuff in the books for film visual effects, from mixed animation to live action to quick editing to anything. While this visual style may seem disorienting at first, it quickly immerses audiences in a viewing experience like no other. In a world where every horror movie tries to be more realistic than the last, “Hausu” is a refreshing change of pace, favoring childlike fantasy over the boring reality we live in.

‘Hausu’ isn’t one of those movies that’s “so bad it’s good” because its look is totally intentional, it doesn’t look that way due to a lack of budget like other cult classics such than “Troll 2”. He looks more like a child Halloween themed pop-up book due to inspiration from the movie. While filming the film, Obayashi regularly spoke to her pre-teen daughter about the creepy ideas she thought should be in the film. On this, Obayashi said, “adults only think about things they understand…everything stays on that boring human level” while “children can make things up that can’t be explained.” By having his daughter’s ideas for the film, Obayashi was able to come up with some of his most surreal scenes, such as a haunted piano and the reflection of a mirror attacking the viewer.

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The visual style of ‘Hausu’ cannot be explained with rational thought since children can find things that cannot be explained like an adult. This inexplicable style with little to no logic also adds to the horror of the film. The film, with its vibrant colors and confusing editing, does not resemble our reality. The film, which bears no resemblance to our version of reality, takes viewers on an immersive journey into the unknown.

A journey into the twisted imagination of a child. The film’s unpredictable quality adds to the horror since audiences never quite know what to expect. There’s not a single moment in the movie that will make the audience roll their eyes and say “sure, I saw that coming a mile away.” Quite the contrary, there are some outlandish visuals and moments in the movie that will have audiences wondering how the hell it even happened, like a man turning into a bunch of bananas. The visual marvel of ‘Hausu’ will keep audiences glued to the screen while making them never expect what happens next.

A parody of Hollywood horror movies

‘Hausu’ acts as a parody of the big budget hollywood horror movies who preceded him. Just look at the names of the main girl group in the movie: Melody (Eriko Tanaka), a girl who likes to sing, Kung Fu (Miki Jinbo) the toughest in the group, and Prof (Ai Matsubara), the smartest of the group. The characters are parodies of different character tropes commonly seen in haunted house type movies. It’s like every girl in the main group has a personality trait and that personality trait is also her whole character, like in Hollywood movies. The characters are also parodies of children’s characters, especially schoolgirl characters, where each member of the group takes on a certain role. This adds to the country character of the film, where the characters revel in their tropes, creating a lot of humor in the film.

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The surreal style of the story also acts as a parody of horror movies. ‘Hausu’ takes on the tropes that are associated with haunted house movies and pushes them to trippy extremes. Most haunted house movies play with the idea of ​​the house killing its guests, but ‘Hausu’ takes this one step further by literally having its guests eat at the house, from the piano biting off someone’s fingers to a decapitated head. biting someone’s butt. The haunted house movies also all have a creepy old woman who owns the house.

Creepy old woman from Hausu is aunt (Yōko Minamida), who is just having a good time in the movie. Instead of being old and shrewd, aunt revels in the scary, eat eyeballs and dance with skeletons. Auntie, like the film itself, has a playful energy in contrast to the “creepy old woman” trope. Auntie acts as a parody of the “creepy old woman” trope by putting the trope on her head, acting differently from the creepy old women that came before her while still being creepy. It’s as if the movie takes what we’ve come to expect from a regular haunted house movie and gives us the exact opposite, a funhouse mirror look at the tropes we’ve grown accustomed to.

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Conclusion

“Hausu” is the funniest haunted house movie ever made thanks to its trippy visuals and playful nature. It pays homage to the typical haunted house story while flipping its tropes and visual style on its head. With its vibrant colors, mix of different visual effects and fast-paced editing, ‘Hausu’ is a movie you can’t look away from. It’ll keep you glued to the screen wondering both what’s going to happen next and how we even got here in the first place. Hausu is a cheerful and playful look at the crazy, a fun and engaging experience that any horror fan will love. While “Hausu” is an extremely rewatchable movie, no one will forget their first time watching this mind-blowing treat.

“Hausu” is available to stream on the Criterion Channel.

By Brianna Benozich

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