House

Edition no. 539

Buy Physical Copy At: Amazon.com Amazon.ca
Licensor Information
Toho Co.
Directed by: Nobuhiko Obayashi
How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi’s indescribable 1977 movie House (Hausu)? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of Scooby-Doo as directed by Mario Bava? Any of the above will do for this hallucinatory head trip about a schoolgirl who travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt’s creaky country home and comes face-to-face with evil spirits, a demonic house cat, a bloodthirsty piano, and other ghoulish visions, all realized by Obayashi via mattes, animation, and collage effects. Equally absurd and nightmarish, House might have been beamed to Earth from some other planet. Never before available on home video in the United States, it’s one of the most exciting cult discoveries in years.
Streaming Options
2867.
+1350
Popularity
Last 24 Hours
#2867 1350
Last 7 Days
#4028 1488
Last 30 Days

Release Information:


Technical Specifications

Format:
Blu-ray
Disc:
BD-50 (1 Disc)
Total: 1 Disc
Regions:
A (Blu-ray)
Aspect Ratio:
1.33:1
Audio Options:
Japanese PCM Mono 1.0
Resolution:
1080p/24
Subtitles:
English

Supplements

Types of Supplements Included: Documentary, Short Film, Interview, Theatrical Trailer, Booklet
  • Constructing a “House,” a new video piece featuring interviews with director Nobuhiko Obayashi, story scenarist and daughter of the filmmaker Chigumi Obayashi, and screenwriter Chiho Katsura
  • Emotion, a 1966 experimental film by Obayashi
  • New video appreciation by director Ti West (House of the Devil)
  • Theatrical trailer
  • A booklet featuring a new essay by critic Chuck Stephens

Forum Member Statistics

Sign-in with your forum account to rate this release
Film
7.1600/10
Picture
8.8000/10
Audio
8.4000/10
Supplements
7.5714/10
Artwork
9.8571/10

Release Credits

Producer: Curtis Tsui
Artwork: Sam Smith

Release Notes on Restoration

House
House is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. 0n widescreen televisions, black bars will appear on the left and right of the image to maintain the proper screen format. On the DVD edition, the pictures have been slightly windowboxed to ensure that the maximum image is visible on all monitors. This new high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit Datacine from a 35mm low-contrast print struck from the original negative. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually removed using MTI’s DRS system and Pixel Farm’s PFClean system, while Digital Vision’s DVNR system was used for small dirt, grain, and noise reduction.

The monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from an optical track print. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube’s integrated audio workstation.