There’s more to The House than just watching a bunch of little fellas scoot their way around a cool-looking set. There’s a unifying theme here, involving characters who are captivated by this building, and who think they can they can make something out of it: a safe shelter, a profit, a community, et cetera.
It’s hard not to appreciate the sheer amount of work that went into crafting this threefold fever dream, and the directors’ sheer effectiveness at creating such instantly believable fantasy worlds. They set out to make these stories vividly oppressive and claustrophobic, and they certainly succeeded.
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.
While it isn’t exactly outright horror as many of us might understand it, there is something effectively nauseating about its imagery. I liked it; but I won’t be watching it ever again.
This final third is a very, very slight affair. If the content of the stories had matched the painstaking form, the anthology could have been rather a groundbreaking success. As it is, the architects need to go back to the drawing board.
Each story is directed by different independent animators, and though all of the roughly half-hour segments are handsomely made, the series as a whole lacks a sturdy foundation.