Americans have a good chance of surviving the night in a haunted house. The Japanese don’t. Upon crossing the threshold, the human is doomed. There is no escape from a Japanese haunted house, as there is no contest between the living and the spooks. This is the difference between the ghost stories of America and Japan.
In “Hausu,” (Central Cinema, Dec 4-10) Nobuhiko Obayashi’s 1977 spooko, the fun is not in rooting for the characters’ survival, as survival is not an option, but in trying to keep track of who is dead and who remains alive. The ghosts are skillful in assuming mortal form whenever convenient, and the living are always a mouthful away from becoming ghost food.
The story begins with Oshare, also known as Gorgeous, collecting her friends for a summer vacation at Grandmother’s house in the country. Needless to say, they provide quite a meal for the old lady, who hasn’t eaten since her death. The fattest one is the first to disappear. An example of director Obayashi’s gross-out cuteness is when Grammy turns the girl’s head into a watermelon and, while eating it, smiles to reveal an eyeball inside her mouth.
“Hausu” teems with such visual treats, accompanied by cute little songs and playful scenes of frolicking schoolgirls. Much of the movie is such fun that it is easy to forget it is a horror show and then, bam: grossout!
Horror movies have reached such a level of explicit gnarliness that this item is unlikely to upset anyone familiar with the present state of the genre. Most of the violence is too whimsical to disturb any but the most squeamish. For example: A girl’s face turns to glass and then the glass breaks into pieces. In 1977, this was pretty extreme. Now it’s the stuff of children’s cartoons. Gross? Yes. Cute? Even more so.
"Hausu" will be shown twice daily, with the second show restricted to adults 21 and over.
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