The House (2022) Review: A Surreal Stop-Motion Anthology About Home, Identity, and Human Desire

 

The House | 2022 | 1h 37m
Genre: Stop-Motion Adult Animation, Anthology | Country: United Kingdom
Directors: Paloma Baeza, Emma De Swaef, Niki Lindroth von Bahr
Writers: Enda Walsh, Emma De Swaef, Marc James Roels
Cast: Mia Goth, Matthew Goode, Claudie Blakley
IMDb: 6.0
My Rating: 9/10

Three stories, three different eras, and one mysterious house. Through its surreal stop-motion animation, The House explores how people project their dreams, fears, and desires onto the places they call home.

Warning:

Contains depictions of alcohol use and smoking.

What if the house we dream of owning is actually the thing that slowly destroys us?

That was one of the thoughts I had while watching The House (2022), a stop-motion anthology built around one mysterious house. Netflix lists the film as a 2022 adult animated anthology and describes its three stories as taking place across different eras.

The film is divided into three stories, each with different characters and a different period. The three stories are And Heard Within, A Lie Is Spun, Then Lost Is Truth That Can't Be Won, and Listen Again and Seek the Sun. Although the characters and timelines change, they are all connected by the same house.

The first story follows a family consisting of a father, mother, and two young daughters. They are not particularly wealthy and are constantly looked down on by their extended family. One day, the father meets a seemingly crazy architect who offers them a luxurious house for free.

It sounds like an incredible opportunity.

But after the family moves into the house, strange things begin to happen.

The second story follows a rat who has spent almost all of his money renovating a house because he plans to sell it. Unfortunately, selling the house turns out to be much more difficult than he expected. He has to deal with destructive insects as well as strange potential buyers.

The third story follows Rosa, a cat who turns her house into a rental apartment. Many of the tenants have already left after a flood hits the area, but Rosa continues trying to survive with two tenants who never pay her with money. Even when the situation seems hopeless, she keeps holding on.

What I find interesting about The House is the way these three stories are connected without simply telling one continuous story. The characters are different, the timelines are different, and even the atmosphere changes from one segment to another. Yet the house remains the common thread.

I like that approach because the house itself becomes more than just a setting. At the beginning of each story, it looks attractive or promising in some way. The characters see something they want in it, and that attraction becomes the starting point of their problems.

The stories are also arranged quite systematically, from the house's earlier history to what happens much later. Even though each segment has its own plot, there is still a sense that we are watching different chapters of the same strange place.

Another thing I enjoyed is that all three stories use stop-motion, but they do not look exactly the same.

The first story feels the most aesthetic to me, especially through its color choices and the way the stop-motion technique is clearly visible. The second feels more realistic and modern because of its setting. The third has a calmer atmosphere, largely because of its softer color palette, and at times it almost does not look like stop-motion.

I like how each style gives the individual story its own identity without losing the connection between them.

The first story is interesting and systematically presented. The music also supports the scenes well, especially when the mysterious atmosphere begins to grow. However, there is one detail that makes little sense to me: Isobel, the family's baby.

She is portrayed as a baby who cannot even walk yet, but she is somehow able to do things that seem impossible for her age, such as falling down the stairs without being injured and getting down from a window without assistance.

It is a small detail, but it stood out to me because it affects the logic of the story.

The second story has a good color composition and uses some interesting music as well. I also like how the story develops because it is difficult to predict where it is going. There is even a plot twist that adds another layer to the story.

The third story is probably the one where the characters' personalities feel the clearest to me. The story is also written quite well and flows naturally. However, I still feel that some of the background information is unclear, particularly the reason for the flood.

The ending may also feel a little unrealistic, but I think it carries a fairly meaningful message.

And that is probably where The House becomes more interesting than a collection of strange stop-motion stories.

For me, each story can be seen as an analogy for human feelings and thoughts. The house attracts the characters in different ways, but what happens inside it reflects their own desires, fears, frustrations, and decisions.

I think this is why the film can be interpreted on a broader level. We may watch the stories simply as strange or dark animated tales, but there are deeper messages underneath them if we are willing to look beyond what happens on the surface.

My favorite memorable moment comes from the second story, when the rats eventually return to their natural behavior.

That scene is particularly interesting to me because the character has spent so much time trying to become a successful rat in a human-like world. After everything he has done to create a successful life for himself, seeing him return to what is natural for a rat feels both strange and meaningful.

It makes me think about how much effort people sometimes put into becoming something they believe they are supposed to be. We work, build, improve, accumulate, and try to create the version of ourselves that we think will finally make life feel successful.

But sometimes, after all that effort, we may still find ourselves returning to something much more basic.

The dialogue, “To fix this house, to make a home with good memories for myself,” also feels important because it reminds me that a house and a home are not necessarily the same thing. A building can be beautiful, expensive, or impressive, but that does not automatically make it a home.

Perhaps a home is created through the memories we build inside it.

That is what I found interesting about The House. Each character sees the house differently, and each person brings their own desires into it. The house does not simply change their lives; it also exposes something about who they already are.

Overall, I think The House (2022) is a very interesting film and worth watching. The three stories have different strengths, and there are still some details that could have been developed or explained better. But the combination of stop-motion, dark humor, strange situations, and deeper human symbolism makes the film memorable.

Perhaps that is why I kept thinking about the house itself after the film ended.

We often believe that getting the things we want will finally make us happy. A better house, a better life, more money, more success, or greater control over our circumstances. But what happens when the thing we spend so much energy trying to obtain starts controlling us instead?

Maybe the more important question is not what kind of house we want to live in, but what kind of life are we building inside the things we spend so much time trying to own?

(Aluna Uwie)

Previously published on Alunauwie.com.

"This article was originally written in Indonesian and has been adapted into English for international readers."