A person would think a ghost story would be scary. There are some like The Haunting that are. The Japanese movie, House, is the directing debut of Nobuhiko Obayashi. It fails to frighten.There are visuals that attempt but do not succeed in giving the audience the fright factor. There are scenes involving a decapitated head, and a carnivorous piano. This does require imagination, but no scares here.
The story involves seven teenage girls at a Japanese boarding school. One girl, Oshare, (Kimiko Ikegami)nicknamed Gorgeous, is excited to see her father. Her excitement dies, when her father announces he is engaged, to a woman who is overly excited to replace Gorgeous late mother. Oshare decides to visit her aunt who lives in the country. She takes this trip accompanied by her schoolmates, Kung Fu, Fantasy, Mac, Melody, Sweet, Fanta and Prof. The nicknames are for their special skills. They meet the aunt, who is wheelchair bound and is wearing sunglasses. She later is seen in bright light, without sunglasses or a wheelchair. When she is questioned about this her explanation, is the girls youth and energy has invigorated her.
The girls should wonder about auntie’s explanation. They don’t dwell on it. They probably should have left the house after seeing the transformation to miraculous health. They don’t of course. There are strange and weird things that happen in the house. The girls, even with brainy Prof, (Ai Matsubara), can’t find an explanation.This movie and it’s strange happenings, couldn’t be explained by Holmes and Watson.
The previously mentioned detective team might be able to decipher the script with assistance from their nemesis, Moriarity. This odd tale comes to life from the minds of Chiho Katsura and Chigumi Obayashi. The weird things in the script, might even have Stephen King scratching his head. These things such as a carnivorous piano and the head in the well come off more as comedy than terror. The script could may have worked if the style of the director was different. Obayashi, should have studied directors like Jacques Torneur and James Whale, to get a feel for terror. Their are some visually striking backgrounds, by Tatsuo Shimamura. There are even some good stunts choreographed by Kanta Ina. These mainly involve Kung Fu, (Miki Jimbo).The irony regarding Obayashi, is that he was friends with Oshiro Honda, the director of Godzilla. He should have made a better movie considering, Honda created a litany of screen monsters.
Horror movies are the most famous film genre. They go back to German expressionist cinema. They evolved into classic Universal horror films and then into scifi horror and slasher films. There is no reason for a film alleging to be a ghost story to be so bad, given all the material available. There are too many good horror movies to watch. You can skip House.