House

 Whenever I visit Portland, my friend Derek always shows me something fantastic from his vast and well-curated movie collection. I'm on my way there again this weekend and I can't wait to be treated to something delightful.

image from hong kong in the 60's

 Last time, we watched 1977's House (not featuring a curmudgeonly genius doctor, but pretty much everything else on earth, including a bloodthirsty piano and a watermelon transforming indelicately into a human head), reissued by Criterion in 2010. I love the Criterion Collection because they treat all their choices with great detail and respect, even when the choice in question is the weirdest, most ridiculous piece of beautiful film nonsense ever.

image from betty bloodletter

 I can't really even attempt to talk about this movie except to say that it is really fun to watch, not scary at all, and makes zero sense. It might be the craziest thing I've ever seen, and I once saw a college production of Macbeth where everyone was dressed like Marilyn Manson.

What! My first GIF. from gifmovie.tumblr.com

 Is it terrible? Kinda. But it also contains some amazing images. Reviewer Lucius Gore of horror site eSplatter puts it nicely: "Described by many as "Dario Argento Meets Beetlejuice," Hausu is actually a difficult movie to classify. Part bad comedy, part madcap horror film, it's basically just a highly entertaining, utterly strange horror film -- artfully directed and photographed." Yup!

You can watch this on Hulu Plus or rent it, but you might fall in love like I did and need to own your very own snazzy Criterion copy. HOUSE!