Fans of Japanese cinema will be fully aware of just how bizarre their movies can be. Nobuhiko Obayashi's 1977 horror movie Hausu is no exception - transcending its basic premise of a group of schoolgirls travelling to the countryside to stay with one of their aunts, few films have managed to pull off such an eccentric mix of genre tropes mingled with weirdly inventive special effects quite so effectively. The surreal tone is established early on with the character's names - Gorgeous, Fantasy and Sweet are just three of the students who find themselves at the mercy of the haunted house, which takes possession of everything from the grand piano to the grandfather clock. What strikes the viewer most is the bravura manner in which Obayashi mixes up various media techniques - intercuts, overlays, animation, inserts and a host of other ingenious visual tricks are deployed from start to finish. Beguiling and highly unusual, it's a minor masterpiece of surrealist horror.
