Review of the house
The House, Netflix’s new year's release, is a stopmotion miniseries featuring three stories. It takes place in a sprawling house. Each director directs a short, but all share a similar sense of dreadfulness and spookiness.
Nexus Studios' latest anthology, The House, is another in a long list of projects from the UK-based company. (The same company that brought you Billie Eilish’s animated special Happier Than Ever). Its three-hour chapters each cover different aspects of the same house, in separate parts.
Chapter 1 is set in 1800s and centers on a family of poor people who move into an unusual house that brings bad luck and evil to its residents. It's slow-burning and evocative of Wes Anderson, with a stop animation aesthetic that's as much reminiscent of Ray Harryhausen, Salad Fingers and Fantastic Mr. Fox.
The House isn’t just a dark comedy. Instead, it’s an arthouse-style miniseries asking you to think. It does this in a way that is often surprising, but always rewarding.
It's a dark, creepy, humorous, disturbing, and hopeful piece of cinema that will stay with you long after the credits roll. With its engaging story beats and modern stop-motion animation, it's well worth a glance.
The House is visually stunning stop-motion film. Each chapter is beautifully detailed, from the flocked figurines of the second story to the felt characters of the first.
The House's aesthetic is a pleasant throwback to the 1980s Epoch Sylvanian Families series. This makes it a welcoming sight for stop-motion animators. The feeling characters in chapter one add to the dread. The lifelike characters in chapter two are a delight for stop-motion film enthusiasts.
The House's visuals are stunning and the script is well-written, but they aren't perfect. The House doesn't manage to overcome its minor faults. Its stories often subvert the surreal for more logical plot elements. A sprinkle of sarcastic humor at inappropriate times makes for an uneven, but ultimately satisfying, finale. For fans of stop-motion animation and dark comedies, this is worth watching, especially if you like Tim Burton, David Firth or Wes Anderson.