Houses of Horror

Hausu is a very strange Japanese horror comedy from 1977. A school girl called Gorgeous takes a bunch of her quirky friends off to stay at her Auntie's for the holidays - unaware her Aunt lives in a weird spooky old mansion that's not particularly friendly. The happy gang soon start getting thinned out under increasingly bizarre circumstances and it all builds to a fairly incomprehensible climax. It might not be scary but it is funny and it looks amazing, with lurid colours and lens misting underscoring the surreal dreamlike quality of the film. This isn't going to be a film everyone will enjoy but if you fancy something er different it's worth a look but try and find the Masters of Cinema edition.


Nine years later and there's an American horror comedy called House about a washed up author who moves into his Aunt's spooky old house, the same house where his son disappeared years before. Like Hausu its not scary and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense but does have some 80's charm with amusing performances from George Wendt and William Katt and some goofy, imaginative effects. Obviously it pales in comparison to the Japanese film but it's an entertaining enough 90mins which I'm sure the remakers will jump on soon enough.