The Rio Theatre's annual deep-dive into spooky, Halloween-y goodness continues this October with a screening of one of our favourite and most frequently requested titles - the bizarro 70's Japanese cult-classic oddity that is HOUSE ("Hausu").

Some movies can't be explained; they need to be experienced. HOUSE is one of those movies. (Trust.)

How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi’s indescribable 1977 movie HOUSE? 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 who 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.

"The best thing in this wild assemblage of collage and cartoon and fairy tale is that the girls, when they're eaten, scream with glee as their cut-out body parts spin around the frame. It's cannibalism as the ultimate kiddie ride." (Vulture)

Wednesday, October 26
Doors 7:55 pm | Movie 8:20 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time.

HOUSE "Hausu" (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977 / 88 mins / In Japanese with English subtitles) | In an effort to avoid spending time with her father and his creepy new lover, young Gorgeous (Kimiko Ikegami) resolves to visit her aunt's remote mansion. With six of her closest friends in tow, including the musically inclined Melody (Eriko Tanaka) and the geeky Prof (Ai Matsubara), Gorgeous arrives at the estate, where supernatural events occur almost immediately. A severed head takes flight, household appliances come to life and a portrait of a cat seems to contain an evil spirit.