Hausu (House) (1977)

This was the second of the films I chose from the NFT's Wild Japan series and while I can certainly report that the movie was indeed wild, I would be hard-pressed to write that it was good as well.  In a plot familiar to us from (much later) Western films, a group of innocent schoolgirls go for a holiday at their friend's aunt's house in the countryside and are one by one devoured by the house.  The aunt is in fact dead and survives through her sexual frustration which eats virgins -- or something like that.  While the plot itself is slow to develop and not just a little confusing with some occasionally unrelated scenes, the presentation is what makes this movie unique.  This was the director Nobuhiko Obayashi's first film and I understand that he is something of a cult figure in his native country.  Made well before the availability of computer-generated effects, he employs a mixture of double exposures, cell animation, stop-motion animation, split screens, fast and slow motion -- you name it, it is part of his potpourri in achieving his spooky images, most notable of which is one of the girls being consumed by a grand piano.  Combined with dancing skeletons, twinkly-eyed malevolent cats, and an infectious tinkly score, this film is certainly one of a kind.  But I still can't write that it was good or even particularly scary.