Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The House’ On Netflix, An Animated Dark Comedy About A Big Creepy House In Three Different Timelines

It’s hard to describe an animated dark comedy as “grim”, but that word kept popping into our heads while watching The House, which consists of three “episodes” about a massive, creepy house in three different timelines. Why is it so grim?

THE HOUSE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: The House is an stop-action animated film that’s billed as a dark comedy; in the film, three stories are told, all involving a massive, creepy house that feels like it’s bigger inside than it is outside — and it’s pretty big on the outside.

In the first story, directed by Emma de Swaef and Mac James Roels, an impoverished family in the 1800s is given an offer they can’t refuse. Raymond (Matthew Goode) is shamed by his grouchy aunts and uncles when they come to see baby Isobel (Elanor De Swaef-Roels). He wanders the woods drunk, and receives an offer from an eccentric millionaire named Van Schoonbeck (Barney Pilling); he’ll build his family a mansion for free if they abandon their modest house. The house is huge and a bit airless, and older daughter Mabel (Mia Goth) finds that the millionaire is constantly making changes, and his representative, Mr. Thomas (Mark Heap), is losing his mind.

In the second story, directed by Niki Lindroth von Bahr and set in the current day, a house flipper (Jarvis Cocker) has put all his resources into renovating the mansion. He ends up completing it mostly by himself and loves what he sees… until he finds an infestation of fur beetles. Still, an open house is coming and he wants to make sure the house is ready. Most of the prospective buyers there show little interest, except for an odd couple (Sven Wolter and Yvonne Lombard) who say they are “very interested.” They’re so interested, they essentially move in. Did we mention that they’re all rats?

In the third story, directed by Paloma Baeza and set in the near future, the house is the only thing still dry in a completely flooded city. It’s now an apartment complex, and the landlord, a cat named Rosa (Susan Wokoma) — she’s literally a cat, as is everyone else in this story — is determined to renovate the mansion. But she can’t get rent from her two remaining tenants; a young man named Elias (Will Sharpe) pays her in fish and a hippie lady named Jen (Helena Bonham Carter) pays her in crystals. When one of Jen’s mystical friends named Cosmos (Paul Kaye) comes to visit, Jen is shown that it’s time to let go of the house, but she stubbornly wants to stay put.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Weirdly enough, The House reminded us of the “Dollhouse of the Damned” episode of The Haunted Museum, maybe because they both use stop-action animation.

Performance Worth Watching: We most enjoyed the performances in the third story, with both Wokoma’s turn as the exasperated Rosa and Carter’s voice performance as the free spirited Jen.

Memorable Dialogue: Not sure why, but every time little Elanor De Swaef-Roels burbled as Isobel, she had our attention. Yes, what she said wasn’t exactly “dialogue,” but it did stick in our minds more than any individual quote.

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Like we mentioned at the top of this review, The House bills itself as a dark comedy. But in reality, it’s more “dark” than “comedy”. In fact, the first episode is so grim and creepy, with the puppets’ tiny faces, we were praying that the second story would change at least the tone.

We were happy to see that was the case, even if all the characters were rats. By making them rats, we wonder if Lindroth, the segment’s director, was insinuating that if anyone will survive this world, it’ll be the rats and fur beetles. The tone of it was definitely lighter, though the developer’s desperation was palpable throughout, especially as he tries to sell this boondoggle of a mansion to prospective buyers who all seem indifferent. The weird couple that invade were certainly off-putting, to say the least, but it gave someone for the developer to bounce off of, rather than just mutter to himself.

The third story had the most hope, even though it describes a very plausible environmental disaster. It’s not a coincidence that it has the most complete story and the best performances. We don’t quite know why Rosa wants to desperately hold onto the mansion despite the entire city being underwater, but at least there’s an arc there where she finally learns to let that go, and she’s rewarded for it.

Through all three stories, the animation is the star, with the textures of each character’s fur or skin manipulated as much as their limbs and heads are, and the movement made so smooth as to make the viewer forget it’s a stop-action animated film. Despite the grimness of the stories, the expressiveness of the animation is what kept us engaged.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The House is certainly off-putting and weird at times, but the animation is great and the stories moved along just quickly enough to keep us interested.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream The House On Netflix