House was a conscious attempt by Toho studios, the home of Godzilla and Mothra, to make a crazy horror movie. The hope was that a certain kind of randomness might appeal to a new generation of moviegoers bored with the Toho kaiju (“monster”) movies that had become too childish. They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.   

Filmed using every trick in the pre-digital book, House looks like it takes place in a series of candy-colored dollhouses or, perhaps, the commercials for them. Animations, superimpositions, rainbows, artificial sunsets, faked home movies, see-through floors and reverse action compete with a metronome-timed theme song in a spooky mansion where schoolgirls on vacation are attacked by items that may or may not represent the domestic futures they are supposed to desire. The girls, typed and named according to personality (Gorgeous, Sweet, Kung Fu), die in ways geared toward their characters in this cartoonishly sadistic Pee-wee’s Playhouse.