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I was pleasantly surprised the other day when I came across House on Netflix. I was originally looking for some animated program that my kids would enjoy on the weekend. When I saw the title card for HouseI knew immediately that its content would depend on the surreal, terrifying aspects of domesticated life, and the TV-MA rating only confirmed my assumption that I should not show House my 3 and 6 year old soon.
Parental caution aside, I watched House for my personal pleasure and I will tell everyone I know who has a Netflix account to watch this dark animated anthology until they get sick of hearing me talk about it.
House is divided into three 30-minute segments on very different timelines within the constructions of the same mysterious house that was built in the late 1800s. As House Taking me from a picturesque past, to a bustling present, to a not-so-distant future that suggests the end times are fast approaching, I was captivated by every single frame of this brilliantly animated Netflix special.
Story 1: And heard within, a lie is spun
First installment House on Netflix begins with an impoverished family gifted a brand new house built by a mysterious architect named Mr. Van Schoonbeek (Barney Pilling). A family consisting of the Mabel sisters (Mia Goth) and Isobel (uncredited) and their parents, Raymond (Matthew Goode) and Penny (Claudie Blakley), move into their new, fully furnished and equipped home. While the drunkard Raymond and the seamstress Penny are charmed by the elegant scratches and grand design of the house, Mabel has a bad feeling about her new living situation.
Communicating primarily with Mr. Thomas (Mark Heap), Mr. Van Schoonbeek’s employee and main point of contact, Mabel grows increasingly suspicious as the ghostly contractors work through the night, constantly changing the floor plan and lurking in the shadows as they slowly transform the house into an unrecognizable, inevitable labyrinth. Despite Mr. Thomas’s reassurances, Mabel fears that the house will eventually swallow her and her family.
Story 2: Lost is the truth that cannot be won
Shifting into modern times, the eponymous house 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 about modern life being a rat race, but it works surprisingly well in this context. This second installment focuses on an unnamed rat developer (voiced by Jarvis Cocker) and shows how desperate he is to finish his renovations and get the house back on the market to pay off his business loan.
The house starts out in disrepair, but only until the developer’s efforts to fend off a relentless bed bug infestation and solve a myriad of structural and electrical issues through his own flimsy, half-hearted contract take center stage. After firing 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 begins to unravel.
While the developer does not 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 wishes.
Story 3: Listen again and look for the sun
With past and present travel stories, House draws the audience into its third and final act.
While we’re still looking at the same house that launched this Netflix special, it might as well be a completely different mansion, as the world has changed around it and influenced its architecture. In a town now inhabited by anthropomorphic cats that I can only assume were brought in to take care of the rats during the second story, we are introduced to Rosa (Susan Wokoma), a down on her luck landlady. to restore 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 he was going to sail in to save the day and la Water world. One of Rosa’s tenants, Jen (Helena Bonham Carter), brings her spiritual partner Cosmos (Paul Kaye) to the house to help with the renovations, as he is said to be a capable contractor. Instead, he rips up the floorboards to build rafts so everyone can set sail to a new life before the entire city is flooded to make it habitable.
Streaming The House on Netflix
House is one of the most amazing animated specials I’ve seen in a long time. In the special, which is animated entirely using stop-motion sequences, each character moves fluidly with a realism and sense of curiosity that some live-action content would struggle to replicate. If I had to sum it up House in one word I would say it is “deliberate”. Each segment presents a moral conundrum rooted in the supernatural, effectively revealing the humanity of each fabric character as they are consumed (figuratively and metaphorically) by the very house in which they live.
You can stream House on Netflix, but you might want your kids to sit through this one.
