Sunday, February 22, 2009

Hausu / House - Japan 1977 (Free Online!)


It wasn't too long ago that I first watched Hausu (apparently the official title is actually "House", but there are so many other movies named "House" already and "Hausu" sounds cooler, so I'm just going to refer to it as Hausu), and my mind is still officially blown. I'll spare you a full review on it because I doubt I could ever adequately describe what it's like to experience this movie in words, and any attempt would only result in a near-endless stream of adjectives mashed up with the incomprehensible gushing and screaming of a tweenage girl at her first flavor-of-the-month heartthrob pop-idol concert. Plus, I'm lazy. But I will say this - This is one of the craziest, most unique, wildly imaginative movies I've ever seen. Hausu is easily the best Japanese horror film EVER MADE, hands down - nothing can compare to the sheer lunacy of this movie. Nothing! I now need to rearrange my "Top 10 Greatest Films of All-Time" list to accomodate for this new bit of mind-bending awesomeness...

Unfortunately, the movie has never officially been released with English subtitles - No DVD, no VHS, no VCD, no Betamax... From what I've read online, apparently Criterion picked up the distribution rights awhile ago and are currently sitting on them. If ever there was a movie that I'd be willing to pay Criterion's ridiculously high asking price for, this would be it.

*UPDATE: It's been released on DVD now. Very high quality release too. Check it out on Amazon

*(UPDATE: This paragraph is no longer relevant, disregard) And now the good news: the whole film (with subtitles) is available on Youtube, so you too can watch it for the low, low price of $0! That's right - an essentially weird, amazing movie is just sitting here on the internet waiting for you to watch it free of charge! Here's the necessary link:

*NO LONGER AVAILABLE* - Sorry

Here's the trailer (which doesn't really do the movie justice, by the way):



You can thank me later...

6 comments:

  1. This has now been released on DVD in the UK with full English subtitles.

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  2. I went to see this film on my 63rd birthday. Undoubtedly, the worse movie ever made or seen by my eyes only.

    If you are semi-normal don't see it or buy it if it ever is sold. Not surreal just garbage.

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  3. to Anonymous -

    I beg to differ, I watched this movie recently and I think it was creative & unique, it kept me interested, hardly "garbage".
    But it's definitely not the "best" Japanese horror movie ever made either.

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