Artist Hausu

Nobuhiko Obayashi has a reputation for making films so campy, violent, and strange that it’s impossible to get and keep your bearings for very long. 1977’s Hausu is his most famous film, a haunted-house flick that famously features a weird cat demon and a carnivorous piano. It’s also the source of some of the most bewitchingly garish images ever committed to film, with Obayashi turning his advertising-trained eye on obviously artificial matte backgrounds and pools of ruby-red blood that heighten the supernatural surrealism tenfold. This little lysergic gem recently received the Criterion Collection treatment, but its full eye-popping, mind-fucking potential can be reached only on the big screen.

Updated 10/20/2010