DIY VIRAL
The author Robert Scucci
| Published
I was pleasantly surprised the other day when I stumbled upon it House on Netflix. Initially, I was looking for an animation program for my children to enjoy during the weekend. When I saw the title card for HouseI knew right away that its content would depend on the surreal, gruesome aspects of domesticated life, and the TV-MA rating confirmed my assumption that I should not show House for my 3 and 6 year old in the near future.
Abandoning my parents' caution, I watched House for my own personal enjoyment and I will tell everyone I know who has a Netflix account to check out this dark animated anthology until they're sick of hearing me talk about it.
House is divided into three 30-minute segments on very different timelines in the same mysterious house structures that were built in the late 19th century. How House taking me from a strange past to a bustling present, to a not-so-distant future that suggests the end times are fast approaching, I was enthralled by every frame of this brilliantly animated Netflix special.
Story 1: And heard within, lies are cut
First installment from House Netflix opens with a poor family gifted a brand new house built by the mysterious architect Mr. Van Schoenbeek (Barney Pilling). A family with sisters Mabel (Mia Gott) and Isobel (uncredited) and their parents Raymond (Matthew Goode) and Penny (Claudia Blakely) move into their new fully furnished house with staff. While Raymond, a drunkard, and Penny, a seamstress, are delighted by the elegant scratch-made meals and the house's superb design, Mabel has a bad feeling about her new living situation.
Communicating primarily with Mr. Thomas (Mark Heap), Mr. Van Schonbeek's employee and main point of contact, Mabel grows increasingly suspicious as creepy contractors work through the night, constantly changing the floor plan and hiding in the shadows while slowly transforming the house into an unrecognizable, inescapable maze. Despite Mr. Thomas's reassurance, Mabel fears that the house will eventually swallow her and her family.
Story 2: Then lost is the truth that cannot be won
Fast forward to the present day, the eponymous home of the Netflix special is now surrounded by a sprawling cityscape occupied by anthropomorphic rats. At first I rolled my eyes at the obvious pun on modern life being a rat race, but it works surprisingly well in this context. Centered on an unnamed rat developer (voiced by Jarvis Cocker), this second plot shows how desperate he is to finish the renovations and get the house back on the market so he can pay back his business loan.
The house starts out in a state of disrepair, but not until the Developer's efforts to combat the relentless bug infestation and fix myriad structural and electrical problems with his own measly, half-baked contract. Having fired his entire team, the developer works alone to ensure the upcoming open house goes off without a hitch. As he finds himself deeper and deeper in debt, he slowly begins to unravel.
While the Developer fails to successfully sell the house, a couple of interested buyers decide to move in and invite their family to occupy the residence against the Developer's will.
Story 3: Listen again and look for the sun
When the stories of past and present are out of the way, House thrusts the audience into its third and final act.
While we're still looking at the same house that started this Netflix special, it might as well be a completely different place to live, as the world around it has changed and influenced its architecture. In a town now occupied by anthropomorphic cats who I can only assume were brought in to take care of the rats in the second story, we are introduced to Rosa (Susan Wokoma), a happy host. for renovating his childhood home, which now functions as a dilapidated apartment building.
In this timeline in the Netflix special, the house is surrounded by a seemingly endless body of water, which made me wonder when Kevin Costner was going to drive in to save the day a la Water world. One of Rosa's tenants, Jen (Helen Bonham Carter), brings her spiritual partner Cosmos (Paul Kaye) to the house to help with the renovations, as he is supposedly a competent contractor. Instead, he tears up the floorboards to build rafts so that everyone can set off to a new life before the entire city is flooded beyond habitation.
Home streaming on Netflix
House is one of the most exciting animated specials I've seen in a long time. In the special, which is fully animated using stop-motion sequences, each character moves fluidly with a sense of seriousness and curiosity that any live-action content would struggle to replicate. If I had to summarize House in one word I would say it is “deliberately”. Each segment presents a moral conundrum rooted in the supernatural, effectively revealing the humanity of each character made of cloth as they are consumed (figuratively and metaphorically) by the very house they live in.
You can stream House Netflix, but you might want to keep your kids sitting on this one.
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DIY VIRAL
