House (1977)

This is a movie that is sure to keep you interested, yet also keep you wondering about a lot of things. I wanted to check out this movie after seeing a trailer of it on Hulu, so I decided to watch it. Well, the movie was alright, but the music was way too campy and made me think I was watching some kind of musical horror movie (despite it being a 70's horror flick). What's more was it left me feeling quite confused , yet it also kept me somewhat satisfied.

I recommend this movie if you want a movie that is pretty cheesy, but will keep you somewhat interested. Also recommend it if you are interested in horror films from back then (though I will warn you, it will leave you quite confused and keep you wanting to ask for more questions).

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A special ancestor to many horror movies

A lovely forebear of Evil Dead 2, it's animated by the same love of cinema and shares it with the same immoderate joy.
Another point in common is the use of arthouse-style editing effects with a half-horrific, half-humorous purpose and frenetic energy. And the latter creates some beautiful artistic moments amidst the chaos, such as the mirror scene and the piano assassination.
The then-young actresses have not enjoyed fantastic careers since, but I find them all convincing in what they were asked to do.
The older actress who plays the aunt is a pleasure to watch, having a ball as a very ham-handed villain.
The action scenes with Kung-Fu are surprisingly well done.

The film is dated, however, and whatever innovations it may have displayed on release, today some visual effects could look as if they'd been created with a bad free video editing app, and it's not always possible to overlook or sublimate them.
Fortunately, most of them are quite interesting, and add their share to an already rich and baroque editing style, set and props.
I don't have a strong opinion on the conclusion of the story, but it's a reasonable ending, yes.

The management of the music is perhaps one of the failures of this experimentation. On the one hand, I like the musical style's discrepancy with the film, but on the other, its constant use is both wearing and sometimes unsatisfactory. It's a flaw that could be applied to the film as a whole, which is highly lavish but just as messy.

A potential rewatchable winter classic as far as I'm concerned.

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