"This house... This house is... I don't know what it is."
Rating:
And the first five star review of the year goes to The House because I don't think I will ever be able to unsee this movie.
Across different eras, a poor family, an anxious developer, and a fed-up landlady become tied to the same mysterious house.
The House was one of my most anticipated films of the year. For those that know me personally, I am a lifetime fan of stop-motion films. My brain is addicted to the artistry and hard work that goes into making one. When I heard that Nexus Studios and Netflix were making a stop-motion anthology, I was ecstatic! It has been quite a long time since a really good stop motion film not made by Laika Studios (studio that made Coraline, Paranorman) got mainstream publicity.
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I
And heard within, a lie is spun
This is my favorite of the short stories in this Anthology. It is definitely the scariest and most unsettling story of the three in "The House," but that's what sets is aside from the rest.
A man makes a deal with a renowned architect to move into a brand new mansion for free. The man jumps at this opportunity to make the rest of the world jealous of his family, giving up their home, and moves into the new house in an instant. The entire family is seduced into the extravagant lifestyle, but one of the daughters Mabel starts to witness strange parts of the houses construction: zombie workers, missing staircases, and mysterious basements. Things get even weirder when her parents are gifted clothing that looks oddly like the chairs and curtains in the house.
The style of these characters slips into the realm of the Uncanny Valley. These specific characters, created by Emma Da Swaef and Marc James Roels, have tiny eyes and mouths that sink into the center of their faces. This character style makes the entire short just a little creepier.
There is repetitive imagery of eyeballs throughout the film, especially in the first story with the wallpaper that covers the walls of the house. I interpreted this as the house is watching each character's every move. Mabel also has this dollhouse that she plays with at the beginning of the film that, by no coincidence, is the exact same as the mansion that the family moves into. This clicked in my brain later on as I realized that the family themselves are dolls being controlled by this architect in their (doll)house. I just thought these were two really small elements that make the overall mystery of the house even more insane.
This is a creepy, unnerving, and frightening short. Be prepared for a jump-scare or two.
II
Then lost is truth that can't be won
The horror of story I doesn't carry over into story II, but there are parts that did make me quite squeamish.
In this short, a rat developer is trying to prepare the house for a showing by fixing up every room. He has quite the energetic and upbeat attitude, but still finds himself running into problems along the way, like an infestation of fur beetles. Everything goes downhill when two characters express interest in the house so much so that they sleep in one fo the rooms overnight.
What makes this story so interesting is the creepy-crawly musical number. Our rat developer has this hallucination moment in the basement where a variety of insects perform this insanely choreographed musical number on the ceiling. The best thing to compare this too is the bug furniture in Coraline, but playing instruments and dancing. Even though it is still an undeniably creepy scene, it is a visual masterpiece. I can't remember if I was laughing in joy or in pain.
Right at the end of this short, the rats really become rats. For 90% of the story, all the rats act like humans, but by the end, they absolutely destroy the house in classic rats going crazy style. I wish I could describe it more, but I feel like I would physically vomit if I rewatched that scene. This version of the house is so detailed, especially when it is all torn up and destroyed, and shows the hard work that the animators put into this film.
III
Listen again and seek the sun
I think this is my third favorite story but my second favorite in animation style. The coloring of this story is a lot brighter and more lively than the last two. The pinks and greens and whites pop off the screen.
The house is now the only house to be seen, floating in a large body of rising water and pink mist. The current cat landlord Rosa is determined to completely refurbish the place, but her two current tenants don't ever pay rent, so she has been pretty unsuccessful. As the water rises, the tenants choose to leave the house, but Rosa has put in too much work into the house to leave it now.
One small detail that made me love this film a lot: Helena Bonham Carter. I love this woman with all my heart. She is my stop motion queen. She voices Emily in The Corpse Bride, my favorite film of all time, and Jen the cat in this short. Her voice is so entrancing with every character that she plays and I will watch every film she is in for the rest of my life.
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Stop motion allows writers and directors to bring to life characters that we wouldn't be able to in real life. The characters look like they are acting in front of a camera. Everything looks so real, even though they are made of clay and cloth and string.
This house has a seductive power, something that the characters in each of these stories cannot control. These stories want you to roam the halls, to notice what things have changed over time, and what things have not.
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