Hausu (1977)

Dir: Nobuhiko Obayashi

If you've read about this recently rediscovered film already, you've probably heard that it's completely insane. It is, for sure, but it's also unexpectedly rather excellent. Yes, you have rapid-fire hallucinogenic visuals, stop-motion surrealist slapstick and an ear-splitting free jazz score played in time signatures you'd need Stephen Hawking to calculate. However, this is also a tremendously innovative, energetic and fierce piece of filmmaking. It often feels like you're riding on a 100mph ghost train built by Mario Bava but there's an effective old-fashioned haunted house story at its heart that both anchors it to reality (of sorts) and provides some genuine spookiness to temper the psychedelia. It's also strangely moving. "Hausu" is certainly not going to be a film for everyone but love it or hate it, you'll never see anything like it: guaranteed. "The Happiness of the Katakuris" is the closest comparison I can come up with but that was made 20+ years later, which only goes to show how way ahead of its time "Hausu" was... ***1/2