The House (2022)

The House (2022)

 6/10

Starring the voices of

Mia Goth

Claudie Blakley

Matthew Goode

Mark Heap

Miranda Richardson

 

Directed by Emma de Swaef, Marc James Roels, Niki Lindroth von Bahr and Paloma Baeza

 

this is a short review

The House is a Netflix stop-motion animated anthology film written by Enda Walsh. The animation tells three different stories cutting across three different worlds and it all centres on a house. The plots are engaging and set in a Twilight Zone feel. Not much can be said about the quality of the animation other than for stop-motion there were good, but the stories they carry is what I admire.

What I like the most about this animation is when you think you know where the story is going, it takes another turn. The stories leave many strings untied making you wonder why this was mentioned, why was this done? There were all this strings deliberately to make you confused never knowing where the movie plot is heading.

The stories, like that of Twilight Zone has a dark ring around it especially the first story about a family of four: father, mother and two daughters.

The family of the man are cruel and when the last child was born, they came to visit and made the man feel small and miserable. He went on a drinking bend and took a walk. There he met a man who claim to be a friend of his father. The man gave him a proposal, he would build him and his family a magnificent house if they agree to move in immediately after construction is done. In addition, they must sign off the deed of their old home.

The couple signed the papers and moved in the moment the house was ready. It was a fully furnished home where they did not have to do anything. Strange things start to happen to the couple and the lawyer was acting all strange also. Only the young child Mabel, seem to notice these and tried to warn her parents but in the end, they were so engrossed in making the house very comfortable for themselves, that by the time they knew what had happened to them it was too late.

The second story takes place in a world populated by anthropomorphic rats. The developer trying to flip the house has financial problems and his only Hail Mary is tied to the sale of this house. He did everything to get the house ready for potential buyers who will come and see the house, but when the time was near, he noticed the house was infested with bugs. He did the fumigation himself (which didn’t work well enough as some were still about) and got the place ready for potential buyers. Only a weird couple seemed interested in the house, but the developer had another problem, they would not leave. They did not sign any papers, nor would they leave. The made the developer care for them and keep promising they would buy.

The third tale is about anthropomorphic cats. The house these three main cats were living in was falling apart and one of them was the owner. She has big dreams of turning the house into a wonderful residence of choice. The problem is the area she lives in is flooded all round and nobody is coming. Her current tenants refuse to pay, and she was at her end needing money to make the house beautiful so she can fulfil her dream, but the area is becoming more flooded, and her current tenants are too broke to pay rent.