House

House returns to Pacific Cinémathèque for the Powell Street Festival Society’s presentation of Kibatsu Cinema, a celebration of the weird and wonderful in Japanese film — and this one certainly fits the bill! Director Nobuhiko Obayashi’s 1977 oddity is an over-the-top horror film that will freak you out as much as it tickles you with its cornucopia of in-camera tricks, camp dialogue and healthy splatterings of the not-quite-right-looking stage blood customary of ‘70s horror. Seven school friends, led by the beautiful and, of course, troubled Angel, embark on a trip to the countryside to visit Angel’s sickly aunt. One by one, the all-too aptly nicknamed girls (Prof, Kung Fu, Mac, Sweetie, Fantasy and Melody) meet playfully gruesome deaths in the apparently possessed house, and any one of a number of nefarious characters could be the culprit. Is it the unruffled aunt? The creepily capable cat? Or is it Angel herself? You’ll have as much fun watching this film as Obayashi clearly had making it. Colour, 35mm, Japanese with English subtitles, 88 mins.