I never said this. Do you purposely not listen to me when I am speaking? I must have said “outside of comedies and midnight madness type films” about ten times during that podcast. Immediately after you said something like, “what about something like [comedy title here]” to which I had to repeat for about the fifth time “besides mmadness and comedy screenings.” I was talking about THE SOCIAL NETWORK and LET ME IN. And with those films, I couldn’t care less about the people around me. YES – with something like Funky Forest or Hausu, an audience experience is a must.

OK, I guess I understand your points to a certain extent…Seeing it with a crowd certainly helps and there are a few slower portions to the film. But my goodness, there is so much to appreciate here – not just because of the fact that he throws every technique in the book at the screen, but because of HOW he does it. Also, this isn’t a comedy or a horror film. You aren’t supposed to laugh at any jokes nor be scared. The laughter most of us have described is at the sheer creativity of Obayashi’s usage of style to tell his story.

Maybe I hyped it a wee bit too much…B-)

I love Funky Forest and Jodorowski’s stuff, but this was just banal horror/humor that I could see people who aren’t used to this kind of fair really getting into and thinking odd. It’s the kind of movie that would play well in the background at a bar or party and have people laughing and pointing and wondering “what is this!?” But if they watched the actual movie would be pretty bored. Unlike something like Holy Mountain or Saragossa Manuscript which are just pretty awesome through and through.

As usual I’m with Marina here. It had a couple moments but once is enough. I came really close to buying it last night at the B&N sale before watching it on my Netflix disc. I’m so glad I didn’t!

Very last sentence:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/movies/homevideo/02stag.html

Andrew, if this is playing in Minneapolis this weekend, get your butt in one of the seats for it. Report back here.

Matt, glad to see another fan. And you’re right – this movie isn’t just ahead of its time…it’s from a totally different time, place and planet. I can only imagine being a young filmmaker seeing this for the first time back in the 70s. I’ve got to see if I can dig up any interviews talking about the influence it had.

At Fantastic Fest Hausu was described as “not scripted by humans”, to which was added, “it’s so awesome that you probably won’t survive a single viewing–sorry!” And after THAT buildup we all still sat in rapt attention, alternately slack-jawed and howling with laughter at what we saw. It’s as if the director came from an alternate universe where movies don’t exist, so someone explained the general idea to him and he made this. Most of our beverages went unsipped, because the movie is built to inspire spit-takes. It’s beyond belief.

You can get a craptastic home-burned DVD here: http://www.lostsilver.com/movies/H/House.html
But honestly it’s worth the wait for a better quality disc, I think. It’s on the fest/arthouse circuit now, and I can’t recommend seeing it with a crowd enough. Complete strangers were high-fiving and talking for hours afterward.

Mike, I don’t believe there is currently a Region 1 version of this available…But hopefully a Criterion release happens sooner rather than later.

Netflix has to get its act together and pick this up!

Secondly, those screen caps are awesome, and I wonder if they are part of the inspiration for the tone of both of Katsuhito Ishii’s films (A Taste of Tea, Funky Forest), because I’m getting a big vibe, even if this film is a totally different ‘genre.’ than Ishii’s work.