Film Fatale: Hausu and Experimental Horror
Make it stand out
House or Hausu (1977) dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi shakes the viewer, slapping us in the face and reminding us of all the possibilities that can come from filmmaking and what happens when the artist steps away from genre conformity and instead embraces the beauty of absurdity. The editing merges form, using painted backdrops and animation to give visual qualities that we aren’t used to seeing. It’s one of the only films where I feel like almost every shot could be its own standalone photograph. Whether it’s the vignette framing, some bold, colourful lighting or a soft sheen over the camera lens, the film is hypnotic.
Obayashi became a notable figure in the experimental filmmaking scene, as well as directing around 3,000 advertisements as a career to fund his art. The merging of commercial experience and the avant garde makes for a unique world that experiments with form and has a satirical playfulness. The director was approached by Toho studio to write a screenplay similar to Jaws (1975), a film that introduced the summer blockbuster not just in America but throughout the world. The parallels between Jaws and Hausu are difficult to see, Jaws being a film that uses realism and relatability to create a simplistic yet effective scary story and Hausu being a film that does not hold back anything in the slightest.
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Although what is much more evident in the film is that Obayashi asked his 11-year-old daughter for input when writing the screenplay, asking her what she found scary. The playfulness, strangeness and even erratic editing has a childlike nature to it. A type of fever dream you might have as a kid or making up stories when you go to your aunties house about the cat having mystical powers and the piano eating your fingers. The film has an imaginative quality to it that can be lost when an artist starts thinking about the logistics, the meanings, the audience reception, and everything else that comes with making a piece of work. I think Hausu is a great example of what can be done when an artist puts these thoughts on the backburner and decides to create what the heart desires.
“The parallels between the lively, optimistic, and naïve girls and the mysterious and lonely aunt point to a generational divide, even the house itself is covered in cobwebs and strange objects, a stark difference to the city scape that was first introduced.”
After completing the screenplay, it took two years for the studio to agree to have Obayashi direct the film. In the meantime, Obayashi created business cards, bumper stickers, a soundtrack, a manga and even a radio drama based on the unmade film. This gained traction, and there soon was a fanbase and Toho thankfully took the leap of faith. Obayashi hired amateur actors that he worked with previously on his commercials and experimental films, as well as having members of the crew and his daughter play parts. The sense of community and excitement for the project shines through in the film. The playfulness and innovation could not have been done in a drab and money hungry environment.
At first glance this film may be a fun comedy horror, its existence being a result of experimentation and desire to be as weird as possible. Although these things may still be true, there’s a meaningful point behind the madness. The parallels between the lively, optimistic, and naïve girls and the mysterious and lonely aunt point to a generational divide, even the house itself is covered in cobwebs and strange objects, a stark difference to the city scape that was first introduced.
Obayashi describes these themes in an interview, specifically his own experiences of losing many childhood friends during the atomic bombing of Hiroshima Prefecture in 1945. The horrors of war devastated a generation, whilst the post-war generation were able to experience life without this traumatic experience. Hausu depicts this in its narrative, the 7 girls being naïve and joyful, whilst the auntie is forever haunted with the tragedy of losing her lover after he was drafted. As the girls watch the scene which tells the tragic story of the auntie and her lost lover, they spectate and give a commentary, talking over each other and referring to the atomic explosion as looking like ‘cotton candy’. The auntie terrorises and devours the girls, a potential exaggerated allegory for the frustration and resentment some of the older generation may have felt after seeing the younger generations of Japan move on so quickly and forgetting the devastations.
With its wide re-release in 2009, there has been a wave of adoration over this film in the past decade. And rightly so, as there is very little like it. Watching this film is a full experience and with every watch you see something you’ve probably missed before.
Words: Charlotte Amy Landrum
