House (1977): How a Ghost Cat Fueled Japan’s Wildest Horror Film
House (1977) is a psychedelic Japanese horror-comedy where schoolgirls on vacation face surreal deaths, slapstick horror, and pop-art visuals, set in motion by a ghost cat.
House
Original title: Hausu
Director: Nobuhiko Ôbayashi
Country: Japan
House (1977) might be the holy grail of bizarre Japanese cinema, which is both a blessing and a curse.
Former TV commercial director Nobuhiko Ohbayashi’s vivid imagination knows no bounds, and the screen is constantly filled with strange and colorful scenes.
However, the downside is his lack of restraint in experimenting with nearly every available technique, causing the novelty to wear off long before the finale.
Oshare and Her Father
During a break from school, teenager Oshare (Kimiko Ikegami) anticipates a vacation with her wealthy father (Saho Sasazawa), who has been in Italy working on the soundtrack for a new Sergio Leone western.
Eight years after her mother’s passing, her father reveals he has a new partner, Ryoko Ema (Haruko Wanibuchi), a fashion designer he plans to marry.
Upset and jealous, Oshare abandons her plans with her father and instead visits her mother’s sister (Yôko Minamida), whom she has not seen in about ten years.
She invites six of her school friends, whose vacation plans have fallen through, and sends a letter to her aunt requesting permission.
A mysterious white ghost cat named Snowflake (Shiro, meaning “white” in the original Japanese version) appears, soon followed by a return letter from her aunt with the message, “Come to me!”
Film Characters
On the train ride over, Oshare shares stories about her aunt, who lost her fiancé during the war and has since remained a spinster. She now lives alone in a large mansion owned by her grandmother.
The girls in the group are briefly introduced, each with a unique quirk to set them apart.
Kung Fu (Miki Jinbo) is an athletic, karate-practicing tomboy; Mac (Meiko Sato), short for “Stomach,” is the chubby girl with a voracious appetite; Melody (Eriko Tanaka) loves music and playing the piano; Sweet (Masayo Miyako) is known for her kindness; Gari (Ai Matsubara) is the brainy one; and Fanta (Kumiko Ohba) is the wimpy worrier with a crush on a teacher. Oshare, whose name is listed as meaning “Gorgeous,” is the pretty, classy, and popular one.
Arrival at the Haunted Mansion
The bus drops the girls off early, leaving them to walk. Along the trail, they stop at a fruit stand where the eccentric owner points them in the right direction.
They arrive at the mansion and meet Oshare’s aunt, who now has white hair and uses a wheelchair. Snowflake, who has joined the girls on their trip, instantly jumps on her lap and stays by her side. This feline is not just her pet (there is a painting of the animal in the house) but also an extension of her will and can telepathically make a camera fly out of a girl’s hands. Pieces of a chandelier fall and nearly kill someone but are deflected by Kung Fu’s lightning-fast reflexes, killing a gecko instead.
Aunt and Snowflake’s Dark Secrets
Oshare’s aunt behaves strangely and hints at being a cannibal, ghost, or vampire. The girls start mysteriously dying, and both the house and the aunt—soon out of her wheelchair, dancing around and disappearing inside the refrigerator—appear to be feeding off the life force of the dead girls to rejuvenate themselves.
Mac loses her head, which comes back to life, flies through the air and bites Fanta on the butt. Kung Fu is attacked by animated logs outside but thinks it must have been her imagination. Sweet has to fend off sheets and mattresses, transforms into a doll, and ends up inside a bleeding clock.
Snowflake, who has been in nearly every scene until now, is instrumental in driving these plot elements forward since the cat’s actions and interactions with the characters often precede or trigger these events.
Supernatural Chaos
With the phone not working, Oshare—now possessed after seeing her vampire aunt’s reflection in a mirror—claims she is going to get the police.
As soon as she leaves, the house seals itself up.
The four remaining girls face various supernatural horrors, including levitating furniture, giant body parts appearing out of nowhere, someone being dismembered and eaten by a piano (with their disembodied fingers continuing to play), a person sucked into a ceiling lamp, and an entire room flooding with cat blood.
The teacher, whom Fanta has a crush on, is supposed to show up eventually, but he gets stuck in traffic. He stops to eat some noodles, inadvertently kills the fruit stand worker after he expresses a preference for bananas over melons, and then goes mad, repeatedly hitting himself on the head while repeating the word “Nabana.”
The aunt’s backstory reveals that she longs to be married and eats unwed girls who visit her. After a series of loud, wild, and often nonsensical set-pieces, the film attempts to conclude with a somber and meaningful ending. However, this is quickly undermined when the soon-to-be stepmother arrives and catches fire, resulting in a conclusion that is more perplexing than emotional.
Visual Style and Special Effects
The joys of House lie predominantly in its visual presentation and special effects, which are remarkably well done for its time.
Ôbayashi heavily relies on animation, such as a dead goldfish transforming into an animated one and swimming away, and comic book-style images bouncing around the screen. He frequently uses echniques like split screen, overlapping scenes, early green screen work, colorfully exaggerated matte backdrops, slow motion, sped-up film, freeze frames, repeated and rewound shots, and innovative camera placements—sometimes behind glass or plastic and even beneath the action.
One flashback scene is rendered in grainy black-and-white, while another adopts the stylistic essence of a sepia-tone silent film, complete with title cards and intentional jumps in both picture and sound. The film employs a vibrant spectrum of colors, aiming for maximum brightness and cheerfulness akin to a piece of vivid pop art preserved on celluloid.
However, despite its fast-paced, noisy, zany, and vividly stylized approach, House misses the mark for those seeking scares or laughs. It is full of creativity and bold stylistic choices. Still, some events feel random and the characters are portrayed in broad strokes—often giggly, whiny, and squealing, which may not appeal universally.
Cult Film Legacy
Nevertheless, House merits at least one viewing.
Despite mixed reviews upon its release, the film experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 2000s thanks to re-releases and screenings at film festivals such as Offscreen.
The Criterion Collection released a restored version of the film in 2010, introducing it to a new generation of cinephiles and solidifying its legacy as a beloved cult classic.
House (1977) Poster!
About the Author
Justin McKinney was coerced over to the dark side by a late-night viewing of Night of the Living Dead (1968) as a child. He has worked on and appeared in several low-budget horror films (Descend into Darkness 1 and 2, Brain Drain, Loonies, Dance of the Dead, Fatal Delusions, Witch Graveyard, Chubby Killer, Slice N Dice, Phantom Limb, Day of 1000 Screams, and others) and has contributed reviews to numerous websites, magazines, and books, including Horror 101: The A-List of Horror Films and Monster Movies, Hidden Horror: A Celebration of 101 Underrated and Overlooked Fright Flicks, When Animal Attack: The 71 Best Horror Movies with Killer Animals, Evil Seeds: The Ultimate Movie Guide to Villainous Children, Meow! Cats in Horror, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy Movies, Seminal Cinema, Horrorpedia, and his blog, The Bloody Pit of Horror. His original screenplay, One Last Photo, is part of the horror anthology Screams of a Summer Day.
Other cat movie reviews by Justin McKinney:
This movie review was previously published in the book Meow! Cats in Horror, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy Movies.
oh boy, this sounds way too scary for me, but I do love the way the Japanese present things, the idea is crazy but it sounds intriguing too. I don’t think I’d watch it but my adult daughter would be interested. I have to admit though, I did actually snort/laugh at the part where Mac’s decapitated head comes back to life and bites Fanta on her bum. #POCOLO
Not sure I followed the plot very well, maybe watching it would help. Thanks for joining with #pocolo