The House is a claymation movie produced by Nexus studios following a house through three different stories. Each story has their own twist as the house seems cursed, each shares a lesson on greed, stress, and acceptance.
The first story is set in the 1800. It follows a young girl and her family who used to be prestigious but fell on hard times. A wealthy man wants to build them a grand house upon the hill with the only catch being they have to move in even as construction is not finished. The parents enter a trance and neglect their children for the house. Construction on the house gets confusing, as stairs go missing and rooms disappear. The children find a replica of their old house in the basement, choosing to sleep down there and reminisce about simpler times. Greed consumed the parents as they wanted to be prestigious again which caused them to neglect their kids.
The next story follows a mouse set in the present day, he bought the house on a hill, which he tried to renovate. The issue—he was selling at the worst time possible with there being a recession. Besides that, there is a massive beetle infestation that could destroy the house. There is an older couple who is looking to “buy” the house but they overstay their welcome. The couple takes advantage of the seller’s hospitality, which drives the seller crazy. It warns against what could happen with too much stress as the humanized mouse becomes a normal, animal, mouse.
The third story follows a cat in the near future. The house on the hill is surrounded by flooding water. The cat is the landlord of the house and is determined to fix it up into nice apartments—which she already has two tenets. One is a tomcat while the other is a spiritual older cat. The house has many problems but most of all—the rising water, which the landlord ignores. The spiritual cat has been writing to another spiritual male cat, who visits the house and shares stories. The landlord could not care less until she finds out the new cat has experience with construction. Things start going the landlord’s way until there is a huge hole in the second floor. She demands answers from the new cat only to be warned of the water rising and needing to leave. Soon enough each cat leaves and as the landlord sits alone in the house she reminisces about her tenants who kept her company and feels defeated. She finally decides it is time to let go, and she is reunited with her friends. The lesson being that only when someone learns to let go is when they can be free and things will work out.
Each story following the house leaves a small cliffhanger of what happens to each of the characters. The movie is well thought out and each story switches at the right time to keep engagement. Each story has a lesson and nuance with it. Personally, my favorite story was the last one of the cats, though I did like the creepy details of the builders in the first story. This movie gets a rating of 4/5 stars as I wish there was a little more to each. I recommend this movie to people who like creepy things and appreciate the art of stop motion.
