Netflix, Netflix, Netflix. I have made my thoughts on Netflix quite clear in the past, they peddle a lot of crap under the "Netflix Original" brand and if they don't shape up they are going to go down the same tube as Steam, with really the key difference being that Steam is a store-front, having Steam is free and buying your games is what costs you. Netflix is a service, you pay for the service of watching movies and TV "for free", which is a whole argument in and of itself but that is irrelevant. Netflix has released some good movies in the past, Klaus and Arlo the Alligator Boy were good movies and could have really meant something for Netflix, if they didn't share the same spotlight as trash like Pets United, Duck Duck Goose and Vanguard's dumpster fires of animated movies. It really does say something that a lot of the big animation reviewers I follow like Cellspex and Animated Antic, rarely even talk about these movies with a few exceptions. Netflix has gone from the king of the hill to desperately sticking its name to anything to stay on top.
So I consider myself obligated to look at The House, a brand new anthology film brought to us by Netflix and Nexus Studios, a studio that is most likely known for music videos and a couple short films under their belt. I can't really find a full list of their work, not even on their official website, but it does look like they aren't strangers in the industry. The House caught my eye from Cellspex, who tweeted about it and said she was glad to see another animated horror entry. On top of that, it was a stop-motion feature and an anthology film, both of which I am eager to talk more about on this blog. So we have another entry where I'll be asking the question, does this sink Netflix's reputation even lower? Or can it help save them?
As mentioned prior, The House is an anthology film, consisting of three stories that revolve around a peculiar house. I guess I'll give you my initial thoughts on each story and then give a more general overview of the movie.
Our first story follows a poor family of four as they are given the opportunity to move into this fantastic new house. However, things start to go strange as they spend their first night in the house. I do have to say that the atmosphere was delightfully unsettling, with all the little ways that we can tell the parents are getting a bit too sucked into this world. It's almost like a Twilight Zone episode in a way, I'd actually really be interested in seeing what an animated Twilight Zone series would be like, but regardless this was a good first story to the movie. I really can't go much more into it without spoiling it, so while I do have some nitpicks, those delve into the spoiler zone, and unlike Onward, my feelings about this segment do not hinge around one big reveal.
The second segment follows a developer, who is an anthropomorphic rat, as he preps the house for a showing. The atmosphere in this one is perfect, the white noise of the place is all that you will hear in the background for most of it. The hum of electronics and the sounds of the street perfectly give us the setting and the mood. Anxiety is the main mood of this segment, and it can make this a bit of an uncomfortable watch, and there is also a segment where the lighting is a rapidly flashing array of colours like a really bad rave. It also has a really strange musical dance sequence, which was actually kind of cool. The music was actually pretty good and stop-motion dancing is usually going to be a fun sight, especially for fans of this form of animation. I'll be honest, I sort of skimmed through this one, the anxiety was a bit too much for me, but still, this was a neat little segment with an end that I genuinely did not see coming.
Our final segment focuses on the house surrounded by a flood, while the landlady, who is an anthropomorphic cat, wishes to fix the place up for more tenants while the ones she has are unable to pay rent with money. Then a strange friend of one of the tenants arrives and completely upends her plans. This one is a lot more sad bleak than the other two. While the first one was more of an unsettling horror and the second one was more of an anxious one, this is more of a bleak one. Even the ending doesn't come off as a happy one. It is not really the unhappy ending of the last two, but not the happiest either.
You know, it's kind of amusing in a way that this is the first movie I see of the year. In the last bit of 2021, I was getting antsy, I wanted to move out and get a place of my own, and 2022 is the year I plan to start planning. I feel like this movie has the overall these of materialism, how the things we want can consume us. It's somewhat fitting that the final story has the happiest ending of them all, showing us there is a way, there is hope. There is hope. However, that is just my interpretation, so take that with a grain of salt.
I do have to say that the animation of the movie is excellent. I feel like Stop-Motion animation is getting more recognition now-a-days, with the popularity of Laika. That being said, stop-motion is often pigeon-holed into one of two categories; a stop motion movie is either a horror or horror adjacent movie, or falls into the realm of uncanny and unsettling visuals. I do like Laika because they did try other non-horror genres with Kubo and Missing Link. That being said, the directors of these segments definitely knew how to use the visuals to their advantage, with the first segment having a soft look to it that made the actual story a lot more unsettling.
Overall, I did enjoy The House. I can't say it is one of my favourites, and I'm not anticipating it to be one of my favourite films of the year, but it's a well made movie that I do think does deserve some recognition. I will give it the caveat that this is not a movie for kids, I hate that I have to give that caveat but it is what it is. I think my only point of contention is that every article I've looked at said this film was a dark comedy, and I really don't see it, but that may just be me. I don't think this movie will bring up Netflix's reputation for myself, but I don't think I'll be too bent out of shape over people giving it tons of praise and acclaim. It's no Klaus, but it's in the same boat as Arlo the Alligator Boy, and there is nothing wrong with that. If you want a good, unsettling movie, I give this one a recommendation.
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