Netflix Supernatural Horror Anthology Makes You Question Home
The other day I found myself pleasantly surprised when I stumbled upon The House on Netflix. Originally, I was looking for some animated programming for my kids to enjoy over the weekend. When I saw the title card for The House, I knew immediately that its content would hinge on the surreal, macabre aspects of domesticated life, and the TV-MA rating all but confirmed my assumption that I shouldn’t be showing The House to my 3 and 6-year old anytime soon.
Parental caution aside, I watched The House for my own personal enjoyment, and I’ll be telling everybody I know who has a Netflix account to check out this dark animated anthology special until they are tired of hearing me talk about it.
The House is broken into three 30-minute segments on wildly different timelines within the constructs of the same mysterious house that was erected in the late 19th century. As The House took me from a quaint past, to a bustling present day, to the not-so-distant future suggesting the end times fast approaching, I was enthralled by every single frame of this brilliantly animated Netflix special.
Story 1: And Heard Within, A Lie Is Spun
The first installment of The House on Netflix begins with an impoverished family who’s gifted a brand new home built by a mysterious architect named Mr. Van Schoonbeek (Barney Pilling). The family, consisting of sisters Mabel (Mia Goth) and Isobel (uncredited), and their parents, Raymond (Matthew Goode) and Penny (Claudie Blakley), moves into their new, fully furnished and staffed, home. While Raymond, a drunkard, and Penny, a seamstress, are enamored by the elegant scratch-made meals and the house’s magnificent design, Mabel has a bad feeling about the new living situation.
Communicating primarily with Mr. Thomas (Mark Heap), Mr. Van Schoonbeek’s employee and primary point of contact, Mabel becomes increasingly suspicious as creepy contractors work through the night, constantly change the floorplan, and lurk in the shadows while slowly transforming the house into an unrecognizable, inescapable labyrinth. Despite Mr. Thomas’ reassurance, Mabel fears that the house will eventually swallow her and her family whole.
Story 2: Then Lost Is Truth That Can’t Be Won
Pushing forward to modern times, the Netflix special’s eponymous house is now surrounded by a sprawling cityscape occupied by anthropomorphic rats. At first, I rolled my eyes because of the obvious pun about modern life being a rat race, but in this context it works surprisingly well. Centering on an unnamed rat developer (voiced by Jarvis Cocker), this second piece shows just how desperately he needs to finish his renovations and get the house back on the market so he can make good on his business loan.
The house starts out in a state of disrepair, but only until the Developer’s efforts to fight off a relentless bug infestation and fix countless structural and electrical issues through his own shoddy, half-assed contracting take center stage. Having fired his entire crew, the Developer works alone to make sure the upcoming open house goes off without a hitch. As he finds himself deeper in debt, he slowly starts to unravel.
While the Developer doesn’t successfully sell the house, a couple of interested buyers decide to move in and invite their family to inhabit the residence against the Developer’s will.
Story 3: Listen Again And Seek The Sun
With the past and present-day stories out of the way, The House thrusts viewers into its third and final act.
Though we’re still looking at the same house that started this Netflix special, it may as well be an entirely different domicile because of how much the world has changed around it and influenced its architecture. In a city now occupied by anthropomorphic cats, which, I can only assume were brought in to take care of the rats during the second story, we’re introduced to Rosa (Susan Wokoma), a down-on-her-luck landlord hellbent on restoring her childhood home that now operates as run-down apartment building.
On this timeline in the Netflix special, the house is surrounded by a seemingly endless body of water that made me wonder when Kevin Costner was going to sail in to save the day a la Waterworld. One of Rosa’s tenants, Jen (Helena Bonham Carter), brings her spiritual partner, Cosmos (Paul Kaye), to the house to help with renovations because he’s supposedly a competent contractor. Instead, he rips up the floorboards in order to build rafts so everybody can sail out toward a new life before the entire city is flooded beyond the point of being suitable for habitation.
Streaming The House On Netflix
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The House is hands down one of the most enthralling animated specials I’ve seen in a long time. For a special that’s animated entirely through stop-motion sequences, each character moves fluidly with an earnestness and sense of curiosity that some live-action content would have trouble replicating. If I had to sum up The House in one word, I’d say that it’s “deliberate.” Each segment presents a moral conundrum rooted in the supernatural, effectively exposing the humanity of each cloth-made character as they become consumed (figuratively and metaphorically) by the very house they live in.
You can stream The House on Netflix, but you may want your kids to sit out on this one.
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