The House

Netflix animated special The House is a delightfully macabre oddity from a collection of acclaimed stop-motion filmmakers. Split across three short stories that take place in the same house at different points in time, the film chronicles the strange and surreal tales of those who tried to make it their home. The first centres around a family hanging on the edge of poverty who jump at the chance to make a better life for themselves. The second sees a desperate developer (Jarvis Cocker) try to sell the house to a pair of peculiar buyers. And the final follows a disgruntled landlady (Susan Wokoma) struggling to renovate the building as a flood threatens to take the house.

The most striking quality of this collaborative project is the animation itself. Each of the three chapters is a visionary masterpiece. Characters and environments are brought to life in incredible detail. Every section oozes with its own atmosphere, which instantly pulls viewers into the surrealness of it all and doesn’t let up until it’s over. Out of the three, it’s the opening sequence that stands out as the strongest. Its early-20th-century setting and distinctly grotesque character design create an eerie tone that’s matched only by the story’s riveting secrecy and haunting conclusion. Though the following chapters are equal in their artistic achievement, they cannot beat the devilish creativity of the opener.

Aside from each segment taking place in the same location, there’s nothing else that joins them together from either a thematic or narrative point of view. Given how strong the opening is at establishing the allure and mystery of the setting, it comes as an unfortunate missed opportunity that the final two shorts did not choose to build upon the initial premise. It’s perhaps best recommended, then, that interested viewers approach this special as three separate entities rather than one connected whole to avoid any false expectations.

Containing three short tales executed with extraordinary artistry and creative vision, The House is an irresistibly insane and gorgeously grotesque animated anthology that will surprise, delight, confound and frighten viewers.

Andrew Murray

The House is released on Netflix on 14^th January 2022.

Watch the trailer for The House here: