The House – Film Review

Across different eras, a poor family, an anxious developer and a fed-up landlady become tied to the same mysterious house in this animated dark comedy.

If you plan on watching the brand new stop-motion animated anthology film The House, then you should be prepared to be in for one heck of a wild ride that you truly won’t be able to predict. It’s easily the film’s biggest strength. You can never quite tell what’s lurking around the corner, and the film finds a clever way to constantly keep you on your toes while also weirding you out in the best way possible.

This is an extremely weird movie, and one that, at times, left me feeling deeply uncomfortable. Of course, some of the stories in this anthology stood out to me more than others, such as my personal favorite, “And heard within, a lie is spun.” There’s just something so incredibly unsettling about this story that left me feeling cold, confused, and downright freaked out, which I never thought would’ve happened in a stop-motion animated movie.

The other stories, unfortunately, don’t manage to live up to the first in my personal opinion. They’re still good and impeccably well-animated, but I did find myself losing interest slowly but surely as the film went on. But I must admit that this is an extremely dark and wonderfully bleak stop-motion journey that deals with themes such as obsession, madness, wealth, and the pursuit of true happiness.

Honestly, what other stop-motion film can you think of that touched upon these themes? It’s a genuinely rare thing, and I’m super grateful to the directors Emma de Swaef, Marc James Roels, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, and Paloma Baeza for crafting a film that actually went that far. It’s not every day that you get to see a movie in this style of art with so many deep themes, and I have to applaud them for taking risks.

There’s also a plethora of great talent lending their voice to this film such as the immeasurably talented Mia Goth, Claudie Blakley, Matthew Goode, Mark Heap, and Miranda Richardson. They come together to deliver some truly wonderful vocal performances here. Are they among the best performances of the year? Absolutely not. But, you can definitely tell they lent their all to these characters.

This isn’t going to be a film that works for everyone, and that’s okay. If you put this on thinking you’re going to be in for a movie such as Coraline or Kubo and the Two Strings, then you’re going to walk away feeling disappointed. It’s definitely a bleak watch and it’s not the kind of film you’d want to put on if you want a nice, wholesome movie to watch, but if you’re up for the challenge of watching a stop-motion animated film that dares to be something unbelievably dark, The House is sure to impress.