How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi’s indescribable 1977 movie HOUSE (HAUSU)? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of Scooby-Doo as directed by Mario Bava? Any of the above will do for this hallucinatory head trip about a schoolgirl who travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt’s creaky country home and comes face-to-face with evil spirits, a demonic house cat, a bloodthirsty piano, and other ghoulish visions, all realized by Obayashi via mattes, animation, and collage effects. Equally absurd and nightmarish, House might have been beamed to Earth from some other planet. Never before available on home video in the United States, it’s one of the most exciting cult discoveries in years.
“My language cannot do justice to [HOUSE]. You’d have to imagine Pee-wee’s Playhouse with a witch that eats schoolgirls, only amped up by a factor of 100.” – David Edelstein, New York Magazine
“Shot with so much visual panache and mid-70s excess that it comes off like Ringu on a Pixy Stix-fueled hug-a-thon … a brain-rattling delight.” – Austin Chronicle
“Insanely entertaining … For connoisseurs of the bizarre, HOUSE’s revival is long overdue.” – Seattle Times
“[An] effects-saturated dreamscape… Obayashi crams every scene of House with giddy, gaudy visual excess; it’s like Douglas Sirk on acid.” – Seattle Weekly
Screening as part of Late Night Favorites: Spring 2026
Previously screened as part of our Winter 2022 series, “Waverly Midnights: Late-Night Favorites.”