movie review the house

• Entertainment /
• Movie Review
• Netflix’s The House is an unsettling anthology wrapped in cozy stop-motion

A collection of three stories each exploring a different kind of terror

By Andrew Webster , an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.

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The House , one of Netflix’s first new releases of the year, is a straightforward concept. It’s a film split into three chapters, each helmed by a different director, all of which explore a different story related to the same sprawling home. What connects each short, aside from the physical house and stop-motion animation, is a creeping sense of dread. The House looks cute, with talking animals and dollhouse-like visuals, but in each story there’s something lurking just beneath the surface; something wrong, unsettling. It could be a recession or a scary creature — but when you put it together the result is an anthology with a trio of distinct, yet clearly connected stories.

The first chapter, directed by Marc James Roels and Emma de Swaef, is an origin story of sorts, which opens with the ominous phrase, “and heard within, a lie is spun.” It’s a story about envy: when visiting relatives mock a young family’s home, the father makes a drunken arrangement with an eccentric architect offering to build them the house of their dreams free of charge. Initially, it’s an almost idyllic scenario; not only is the house huge and beautiful, but food appears as if from nowhere and the lights turn themselves on. But slowly things unravel. One day stairs go missing as the architect decides to rearrange his masterpiece, while zombie-like workers lurk around in silence. Later the architect gifts the parents bizarre clothing to match the decor. It’s hard to tell whether something supernatural is going on or if it’s just a cruel psychological experiment, and it’s all rendered in soft felt that only adds to the surreality.

Later stories move the timeline forward. Chapter two, directed by Niki Lindroth von Bahr, is set in modern times, when a struggling contractor — who is also a mouse — is renovating the house in an attempt to make some big money. Unfortunately, everything seems to go wrong; not only is he investing everything in the project in the midst of a recession, but he has to deal with persistent problems like a mysterious bug infestation. When the house is complete, only one couple bites: and there is something clearly wrong with them. I won’t spoil anything, but this one is worth watching for the final twist alone. The last chapter, helmed by Paloma Baeza, pushes things further into the future when the house is surrounded by a flooded city. However, a young cat, who has converted the home into apartments, refuses to cave to reality and literally tries to wallpaper over her problems while her remaining tenants do what they can to help her move on.

Despite the various circumstances and timelines, in each story the house represents a kind of lifeline for the characters. It’s a chance for a family to inspire jealousy, for a mouse to pull himself out of the crushing weight of debt, and for a cat to slowly build the home of her dreams. The house seems to attract the desperate. What’s most interesting about The House is how each story offers a different riff on this theme. The first two chapters lean into being creepy, particularly their unsettling endings, but while the first is more of a slow-building dread, the second is much more tangible. Meanwhile, the final chapter, despite starting out quite bleak, ends on a surprisingly hopeful note.

The House also features some of the best-looking stop-motion animation you’ll see outside of a Laika film . Each story has a different vibe. The felt characters of chapter one lend it an almost cozy vibe, that makes the darker elements even more stark, while the second chapter is incredibly lifelike and detailed, right down to the little piece of tape covering the webcam on the contractor’s laptop. The final story, meanwhile, is more ethereal, with foggy backdrops that signal something approaching the end of the world. The only constant is the house, which is always recognizable despite superficial changes over the years.

It’s an almost ideal anthology: connected and yet standalone. And, at around 30 minutes each, the chapters are short enough that they don’t overstay their welcome, while also being strange enough to stick with you.

The House streams on Netflix starting January 14th.

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Common sense media reviewers.

Language and peril in animated anthology.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Sometimes it's okay to give up on plans in the fac

A young girl is wiser and more intuitive than her

Characters are animated as doll-like humans (all W

All three chapters evoke a feeling of dread, a sen

"F--k," "s--t," "damn," "fool," "Christ," "Jesus,"

A father gets drunk and falls asleep on his plate

Parents need to know that the animated film The House seems intended for adult viewers. While its three stories aren't outright horror, they all evoke a feeling of dread and a sense that something bad is going to happen. The first chapter is especially spooky and characters face threats, seem to go crazy, and…

Positive Messages

Sometimes it's okay to give up on plans in the face of reality. Humble surroundings aren't necessarily worse than luxurious ones.

Positive Role Models

A young girl is wiser and more intuitive than her parents; she cares for her baby sister when her parents are no longer able to. A mother makes a final sacrifice for her baby. Characters put a lot of time and energy into fixing up a house. Some older women are flat out mean to their younger relatives.

Diverse Representations

Characters are animated as doll-like humans (all White), rats, bugs, and cats.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

All three chapters evoke a feeling of dread, a sense that something bad is going to happen (and often does). Characters face threats, seem to go crazy, and die. A baby rolls down some stairs and an adult falls several stories into water. A rat collapses after inhaling poison and is sent to the hospital. A bug is smashed and we see a finger playing with its mushy guts. A cat hits her head twice.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

"F--k," "s--t," "damn," "fool," "Christ," "Jesus," "for God's sake," "Jeez Louise."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

A father gets drunk and falls asleep on his plate of food. His dad is remembered as a "worthless drunk." Other characters drink champagne and wine.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that the animated film The House seems intended for adult viewers. While its three stories aren't outright horror, they all evoke a feeling of dread and a sense that something bad is going to happen. The first chapter is especially spooky and characters face threats, seem to go crazy, and die. A little girl has to take care of her baby sister when her parents become incapable, and they face some scary situations. The baby rolls down some stairs at one point. In the second chapter, a rat collapses after inhaling poison and is sent to the hospital. A bug is smashed and we see a finger playing with its mushy guts. In the third chapter, a house is slowly flooding, and a cat hits her head twice and falls several stories into water. A father gets drunk and falls asleep on his plate of food in one chapter, and characters struggle with making ends meet and maintaining a house in all of the stories. Language includes "f--k," "s--t," "damn," "fool," "Christ," "Jesus," "for God's sake," and "Jeez Louise." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (2)
• Kids say (8)

Based on 2 parent reviews

A stop-motion animation dream!

What's the story.

THE HOUSE is a mansion constructed under mysterious circumstances decades ago. The first family to move in loses everything due to inexplicable incidents. Flash forward to a more contemporary era, and a walking, talking rat now owns the house in a populated area and has invested all his money (and more) into fixing it up in order to desperately try to sell it. Problem is, the house keeps presenting new problems, including an infestation of bugs. In yet another era, a cat is now landlord to the house, which sits alone in a flooded area. She has just two tenants left, neither of whom pay their rent, and only her dreams of trying to complete her home improvements before the entire place is washed away.

Is It Any Good?

This oddball animated film for adult viewers picks up steam over the course of its three chapters, with the last 30-minute tale providing the most emotionally satisfying of the three. The first chapter of The House is a disconcerting story of a doomed family that movies into a haunted house. Placing two small girls at the heart of the story, populated with pasty-white, beady-eyed, fuzzy characters, makes it purposefully hard to watch. The second, more surreal chapter is flat out gross as it devolves into a feast of giant, beetle-like creatures. The final chapter introduces a bit of humor and ends on a magical note. The animation is surely commendable, and larger themes seem to have been intended, but all this effort is undermined by stories with limited narrative appeal.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the animation on display in The House . How were the different chapters made? What techniques were used? Where could you go for more information?

What does the house represent across the three different stories? What overarching themes did you notice?

How would the second and third chapters have been different if the characters had been humans rather than animals? Why do you think the filmmakers decided to make them those specific animals?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : January 14, 2022
• Cast : Matthew Goode , Helena Bonham-Carter , Mia Goth
• Directors : Emma De Swaef , Paloma Baeza , Niki Lindroth von Bahr , Marc James Roels
• Inclusion Information : Female directors, Female actors, Latino actors
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Fantasy
• Topics : Magic and Fantasy
• Run time : 97 minutes
• MPAA rating : NR
• Last updated : May 25, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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The House REVIEW – A Haunting Horror Saga

Netflix keeping us fed during this sparse January movie season.

Netflix films range from subpar, most frequently achieving a respectable middle ground, and, on the rare occasion, standing out among a dense field of theatrical releases. After the laudable drama The Lost Daughter released a few weeks prior, I was not expecting another engaging January release. Yet, Netflix’s stop-motion animated anthology film, The House, exceeds expectations. The three interconnected stories spanning radically contrasting centuries uniquely weave horror into its marrow with seriously stunning – and stomach-churning – results.

Sitting at slightly over an hour and a half runtime, The House is divided into three roughly half-hour segments or “chapters”. Three different filmmakers add their own flair as directors for each chapter of the trio of stories written by Edna Walsh. Accordingly, the segments adopt identifiable tones, yet remain cohesive as far as producing some seriously distressing horror on screen. In The House, the setting remains the same while the centuries evolve. A multi-story house lies at the center of these tales of terror as new stop-motion inhabitants take residence in its vast space.

The surrealist stop-motion characters unnerve audiences on their own. The first chapter tells the story of a poor family in the late 1800s. Directors Emma De Swaef & Marc James Roels imbue the architecture with sharp angles and realism, while the felt used to create the humans’ skin appears soft, almost as if their skin could melt. Audiences can see the cotton fuzz composing the Thomas families’ sunken in faces. Minute facial features amplify their large, malleable heads. Inherently, their appearances strike audiences as creepy. The abnormal evidences itself from the moment you gaze upon their glowing white faces containing miniscule eyes glinting with uncertainty.

Their world is small, yet homely. But the father’s head is filled with envy and grandeur when relatives visit and decry their simple means of living. Enraged after a session drinking by the flickering cotton fire, he makes a Faustian bargain with a creature outside who promises to build him a home that will rival anything his dreams could have imagined. This devil builds them a home, much to the chagrin of their contented young daughter, Mabel. Thus, this is the house; the harbinger of horror promised by the films’ title.

Chapter I encompasses the gothic with strength. From the prickling musical score to the danger lurking around the rotating corners of their constantly renovating house to the noises echoing from the walls, it encroaches a sense of dread on viewers immediately and never lets up. Lingering shots and slow pans let the scenes take residence in the audience’s minds. The first chapter in the collection overwhelms the senses and leaves you gasping for relief that never arrives. It’s a haunting opening without any answers as to why the macabre occurs.

After setting the bar so high, you’d think the next chapter would ease viewers back into a mellower mental state and perhaps end on another disturbing note. Instead, Chapter II offers one of the most gag-worthy, bone-chilling images I’ve ever seen. A word of advice: Don’t eat anything while watching the second segment. The story takes a while to set-up its primary plot. However, once the creepiness ensues, it spirals into a bizarre world that renders the first upsetting chapter much more palatable.

Chapter II slides the eponymous house into a future where rodents are bipedal, talking creatures, wearing clothes, and enslaved by capitalism. We see the house again, its exterior instantly recognizable. Yet time has turned the once-dark residence located in the countryside into a modern home planted in the heart of a metropolitan city.

The short film aesthetically resembles Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), yet emerges as the antithesis to Anderson’s trademark whimsy. Anthropomorphic stop-motion rodent puppets don’t exactly incite the same affectionate emotions as soft-faced foxes. Directed by Swedish filmmaker Niki Lindroth von Bahr, Chapter II has brighter lighting and colours. The gleaming white surfaces allow the viewers to feel absolute disgust when hordes of bugs taint the polished surfaces.

Also characteristic of Anderson’s stop-motion animal creations, Chapter III follows a group of humanoid cats who live in the house. After an unspecified amount of years, massive flooding occurred. The house now floats on a plain of water as far as cat eyes can see. Thankfully, after the nauseating middle segment, the final film gives its audience a chance to relax before its conclusion.

British director Paloma Baeza takes the helm and steers the ship to a satisfying conclusion in this final chapter. Floodwaters engulf the house, yet its owner, anthropomorphic calico cat Rosa, is determined to renovate the home for future tenants. Unfortunately, a flood drove everyone out. Only two other cats live in the townhouse-style residence and “pay” Rosa rent in the form of fish and crystals. When a strange guru hippie cat Cosmos visits, he threatens Rosa’s future goals for the house she has desperately attached to herself – and her identity.

Here, the third film ties The House’s themes of obsession, dissatisfaction, and ambition together with clarity. The soft fur and various fur colours for the cat puppet designs resemble the silky bodies of real felines. Ultimately, the film concludes with a hopeful message that will inspire viewers after enduring two chilling, mournful films in the first hour. It’s a film where relatability prevails over the complex or profound meanings offered by the other two chapters that may have left some viewers perplexed.

The screenwriter and directors craft believable realities, sucking viewers inside its dread-filled terror for 97 minutes and then spit them back into their own reality with nightmarish images planted in their skulls. Although the animals look cute, there’s nothing cute about the events twisting their sense of truth into miserable, warped purgatories.

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The House (2022) Netflix Movie Review – An eerie and thematically strong stop-motion gem

An eerie and thematically strong stop-motion gem

The House is a delightfully bizarre medley of ideas and concepts, thrown together into a gem of a stop-motion movie anthology. Themes of corruption, greed and loneliness are rife right the way through this, but these allegories are cleverly disguised through some gorgeous imagery and three very different tales woven together.

Clocking in at a little over 90 minutes, each of these stories are allocated a good 30 minute chunk of time, although they do sometimes end a little abruptly – especially the first part. At the center of this oddity is a weird fixer-upper house and its haunted effect on the owners that wind up living there.

The first tale take place in the 1800’s, with a family moving in and hoping to find a new lease on life. Unfortunately what they find instead is a one-way ticket to madness.

The second story then shifts forward to the present, with a developer (portrayed as a mouse) fixing up the house to modern standards and trying to sell it off.

The third and final tale shifts us forward to the future, after the events of a devastating flood that’s ravaged the world. This house survives, sitting on a solitary urban island, as an exasperated landlady (depicted as a cat) tries to fix the place back up to its perceived beauty, while demanding her tenants cough up their rent.

While the movie bills itself as a dark comedy, it actually feels much closer to a lite-horror and fantasy offering. This is a clever little film though, one that interweaves its themes deeply throughout. There’s certainly more here than a bunch of felt puppets running around a spooky house.

The animation is quite simply outstanding. While it’s not quite at the same level as Kubo and the Two Strings, the undeniable attention to detail is hard to fault. Likewise, the lighting is brilliant right the way through, with the first part making great use of shadows to ramp up the tension.

Watching this at surface level, the first part is by far the strongest and will undoubtedly draw a lot of people in, expecting the other stories to match this eerily surreal and enthralling movie. They never do, as it happens, and at times the tales can feel a bit disparate and uneven. That much is especially true when it comes to the second part, which is arguably the weakest of the three, despite some nice Easter eggs that feel like a nod back to the first part (note the name of the baby here!)

Where The House shines though is with its themes and overarching concept. Ideas of perfection, materialism, capitalism, greed, corruption, loneliness and even hope are flirted with and embraced; molded into heady cocktail of the allegorical and literal.

As someone who loves the weird and wonderful, dissecting every hidden meaning and idea in a feature film, The House is perfect viewing. And it likely will be for anyone else looking for something a bit more thought provoking and artistic than the usual prequel/sequel/spin-off machine that is modern Hollywood. While it never quite reaches the same lofty heights the first 30 minutes achieve, there’s definitely enough here to recommend nonetheless.

Exquisitely animated and hauntingly beautiful, The House is a wonderful stop-motion animation, even if it is slightly uneven at times.

Read More: The House Ending Explained

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• Verdict - 8/10 8/10

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The House Review

A celebration of inventive stop-motion storytelling..

The House is available now to stream on Netflix.

Is there any more underappreciated animation style than stop-motion? The sheer labor alone involved — meticulously assembling and then moving puppetry ligatures frame-by-frame to replicate movement more easily achieved on paper or inside a computer — is mind-boggling. It’s a niche art embraced by the very few, so when Netflix invests in its ongoing existence with a worthy project like The House, that’s something to celebrate.

Produced by Nexus Studios, The House is a collection of three separate short stories that share the same location: a Georgian-style mansion. While directed by different teams, the stories are thematically connected in how they explore the concept of home and especially the lengths some will go to attain, leverage, or keep one. Considering that the very act of buying a home is a first-world “benchmark” of maturity and financial success, The House wisely uses that concept to underscore the absurdities and emotional triggers inherent to the process.

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Each story is a standalone, with Chapter One directed by Emma De Swaef and Marc James Roels, Chapter 2 directed by Niki Lindroth Von Bahr, and Chapter 3 directed by Paloma Baeza. Each director uses the techniques of the medium, but their aesthetics, visual approaches, and narrative styles are all deeply unique and rewarding in different ways. If you’re a fan of animation, all three are visually sumptuous exercises that challenge the boundaries of the medium. This is strikingly cinematic filmmaking regardless of the housebound constraints within each story. The cinematography, lighting, textile usage, and overall ambition of what they bring to life with such detail is flat-out inspiring.

In terms of the individual stories, Chapter One makes a strong argument for itself as the most successful of the three just because of its precision in telling an M.R. James-esque tale of a family trapped within the walls of a house created to torment the adults within. From the off-putting design of the doughy-looking family members to the creepy and surrealistic visual motifs that pop up in the ever-changing architecture of the house, it all comes together in a chillingly effective cautionary tale about never being satisfied with what you have. The creative team also introduces us to a sister team for the ages with Mabel (Mia Goth) and Isabel. The pint-sized protagonists, with their smooshed faces, are voiced and acted so endearingly that they elevate the heart and the stakes of the whole piece.

What's your favorite stop-motion animation movie?

How Chapter 2 lands with you entirely depends on your threshold for bugs. Set in a reality where mice exist like humans in contemporary times, a financially strapped house flipper takes on the home as a means to dig himself out of debt. Taking on the work himself, he makes everything look beautiful on the outside, but battles an infestation of pests that threaten to ruin his whole endeavor. It’s by far the most surreal of the three stories, even featuring a Cecil B. DeMille-style insect musical that is equal parts hysterical and horrific if you have any aversion to creepy crawlies.

Chapter 3 introduces the most beautiful landscapes of the whole film, taking place post global flood as homes are now rendered as tiny islands in an ecosystem threatening to swallow everything in its path. Following in the footsteps of the house flipper, Rosa (Susan Wokoma) is a cat that acts like a human. She owns a large house in huge disrepair that she is single-handedly trying to renovate into an apartment complex. As she labors daily to wallpaper rooms and battles broken pipes, her only two renters, Elias (Will Sharpe) and Jen (Helena Bonham Carter), try to get her to engage in the realities of her losing proposition. It ends up being a poignant exploration of the pain of change and how we cling to places to our detriment.

The teams behind The House should be commended for making the most of their storytelling time. Every frame in every story is a feast for the eyes. From the use of water environments to intricate uses of in-camera focus pulls to fish tanks set pieces, no one is sitting on their laurels and phoning in their stories. At worst, it’s a refreshing use of the stop-motion technique, and at best, it’s hopefully bewitching and inspiring a new generation of animators to push their own boundaries.

The House is a stop-motion visual delight. The three-story anthology explores the many definitions of what a house can be using different tones and techniques. It also proves the vitality that this special kind of animation can bring to the screen. A worthy watch that hopefully inspires more stories of its kind in the future.

In This Article

Where to Watch

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‘The House’ Review: Netflix’s Anthology Is A Striking Showcase Of Stop Motion Animation’s Limitless Possibilities

“I’ve invested my whole life in this house,” shouts an exasperated Developer (Jarvis Cocker, “ Fantastic Mr. Fox” ), who also happens to be a mouse. Welcome to “ The House ,” the latest project from Academy Award-nominated animation studio, Nexus (“ This Way Up ”). Now on Netflix, this stop motion anthology is a delightfully mordant exploration of the perils of putting too much of yourself into your house. Especially one that may or may not be cursed. Set over three time periods with wholly unconnected characters, each part is directed by innovators in stop motion animation: Emma de Swaef & Marc James Roels , Niki Lindroth von Bahr , and Paloma Baeza . The directors have story by credits for their segments, with a melancholic screenplay by Enda Walsh (“ Hunge r”) and an expressive score by Gustavo Santaolalla (“ Babel ”) turning each story into a collective whole. 

Directed by Swaef & Roel , “And Heard Within. A Lie Is Spun,” introduces the titular house’s architect: the eccentric Mr. Van Schoonbeek. Described as a “great artist” who desires nothing more than creative freedom, his assistant convinces the poor, but striving Raymond ( Mathew Goode ) to move his wife Penny ( Claudie Blakley ) and two young daughters Mabel ( Mia Goth ) and Isobel into his newly constructed house rent-free. Of course, this offer is too good to be true. Like the Winchester Mystery House, Van Schoonbeek keeps the house under constant construction. Soon Mabel and Isobel have to fend for themselves as their parents fall under his beguiling spell. 

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Swaef & Roel’s exquisite attention to detail in the finery of the house creates a world as lush and eerie as the finest Victorian ghost story adaptations that were so popular in the ’60s and ’70s on the BBC and PBS. The beady little eyes on the puppets add to the uneasy atmosphere. Goode and Blakley are in fine form as the parents with their not-quite-posh accents, but it’s Goth who steals the show. Delivering her lines like a gentle whisper, she’s the very definition of a cursed Victorian child brought to life. 

The story continues in the present day with Niki Lindroth von Bahr’s section, “Then Lost Is Truth That Can’t Be Won,” where Cocker’s aforementioned stressed-out Developer desperately attempts to fix up the Van Schoonbeek’s estate. Swedish director Von Bahr has made a name for herself with festival favorite shorts exploring existential themes through anthropomorphic animals (definitely seek out “ The Burden ”), and her section does not disappoint. Everything that can go wrong does go wrong for the Developer—from a messed up delivery of groceries that leads to him serving energy drinks out of champagne flutes and canapes made from instant ramen and Cheetos at an open house, to a bug infestation that leads to a surreal Busy Berkeley-esque dance number. 

Von Bahr’s signature humor comes in full force when the segment turns even darker after the misbegotten open house, forcing the Developer to face his true nature. The unique lilt to Cocker’s voice brings forward both the Developer’s frustration but also highlights the true absurdity of a mouse developing real estate. And a pair of creepy vermin squatters voiced by Swedish actors Sven Wollter and Yvonne Lombard seamlessly connect this segment back to the creepy Victorian ghost story vibes of the first part.

Baeza’s concluding chapter “Listen Again and Seek The Sun” jumps forward into a post-apocalyptic flooded wasteland where the Van Schoonbeek estate appears to be the only building still standing. Frustrated young landlord Rosa ( Susan Wokoma , “ Chewing Gum ”), who happens to be a tabby cat, is determined to refurbish the now dilapidated house so she can attract better tenants. Currently, her two tenants Elias ( Will Sharpe ) and Jen ( Helena Bonham Carte r) pay in fish and crystals respectively. When Jen’s throat singing hippie life partner Cosmos ( Paul Kaye ) sails into the picture all of Rosa’s precarious plans begin to fall apart. 

Bonham Carter is a hoot as the flibbertigibbet Jen, but it’s Wokoma’s voicework as the determined Rosa in which this last chapter finds its emotional weight. As her compatriots beg her to sail away with them while the floodwaters rise, Rosa digs in her heels insisting “the house deserves” her love and attention. It’s here the theme of the entire anthology comes into sharp focus. 

All three stories feature characters so obsessed with the house that they forget the most basic truth: a house is not necessarily a home. Cocker supplies a song over the credits with lyrics that underscore this, crooning, “home is where you never feel alone, a house is nothing but a collection of bricks.” However, with a house as magical (or cursed?) as the Van Schoonbeek estate, letting go proves a much harder task than just coming to this realization. 

The art direction of each segment is so rich you can feel the power the house has over its inhabitants, just as the strong voice work of the cast brings to life a deeper well of emotions than you’d expect from creepy dolls and anthropomorphic animals. With its dark humor and excellent execution, “The House” offers a striking showcase for the singular talents of its directors and the limitless possibilities of stop motion animation. [B+]

“The House” hits Netflix on January 14.

Netflix's The House Crafts a Spectacularly Creepy Stop Motion Anthology Film

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There's something about stop-motion animation's tactile nature that makes it perfect for telling creepy, surreal stories. The new Netflix anthology film The House continues a tradition that includes the works of Laika , Tim Burton, and Czech filmmaker Jan Švankmajer, immersing viewers in an unsettling environment with a recognizable physical and otherworldly presence.  The House contains three segments, each directed by a different director. Despite the segments' differing and unique directorial visions, the Netflix movie finds unity with its setting and concepts -- thanks to screenwriter Enda Walsh's efforts.

As the title implies, The House takes place in a home. The opening segment from Belgian directors Emma de Swaef and Marc James Roels starts with a bit of a fakeout on what that house will be. The pair introduce a family living in a modest country cottage in what looks like the 19th century. Father Raymond (Matthew Goode) comes from wealth but is now living modestly with his wife and two daughters. Raymond's family members arrive to see the new baby and spend their time passive-aggressively disapproving of Raymond's choices.

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Later, in the woods surrounding the house, Raymond receives a tantalizing offer: a famous, reclusive architect has bought up all the land around the family's cottage, and if they agree to sign over their house and land, he will build them a lavish new home, on the condition that they agree to live in it. This is an obviously sinister bargain, but Raymond eagerly agrees, bringing his family to a fully furnished mansion. Raymond and his wife are disturbingly mesmerized by the food that appears at each mealtime and by the activities provided by their benefactor, but young Mabel (Mia Goth) is suspicious. The house is perpetually under construction, recalling the famous real-life Winchester Mystery House.

De Swaef and Roels create their characters out of what looks like felt with big, round heads and small features. This design gives their characters a shifty look even when they're earnest and pleasant. The horrors of this segment build slowly, seen through the eyes of the innocent but savvy Mabel, who perceives dangers her parents either ignore or don't understand. The terror comes from the segment's atmosphere more than specific incidents. The story builds to an unnerving effect that's stronger than any straightforward haunting.

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The House 's next segments are more surreal. From the mind of Swedish director Niki Lindroth von Bahr, The House 's second segment shows plenty of gross-out horror moments. In this segment, the house is incongruously stuck in the middle of a modern city. Von Bahr makes her characters anthropomorphic rats, and the unnamed protagonist (Jarvis Cocker of rock band Pulp ) tries to renovate the house into a modern luxury dwelling. He's nervous and jumpy, having poured his life savings into this endeavor.

The house, of course, has other ideas. It's still cursed, but this time sends hordes of insects that the developer futilely attempts to kill. Later, a weird couple at the open house tell him they're "very interested" in the house, and refuse to leave. It's a twisted metaphor for vermin infestation, and von Bahr uses her initially cuddly animated rats to subvert audience expectations. The segment is darkly humorous, from a full-on insect musical number to an amusing revelation about the person the protagonist keeps calling "darling" on the phone.

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The House 's final segment, from British director Paloma Baeza, offers glimmers of hope that are absent from the previous two bleak stories. In some undefined post-apocalyptic future, the city surrounding the house has been almost entirely submerged underwater. The house, despite being built atop a hill, is in danger of being subsumed. That hasn't stopped the latest owner, Rosa (Susan Wokoma), from continuing her efforts to subdivide the house into apartments for rent. There's clearly not much of a market for apartments in this Waterworld -like setting, and Rosa's only two tenants, slacker Elias (Will Sharpe) and new-age dreamer Jen (Helena Bonham Carter) haven't paid her in months. Baeza's characters are all anthropomorphic cats, and they're cuter and less menacing than von Bahr's rats. However, they still fit into Walsh's off-kilter world. The last segment ends the film on a sweet but uncertain note.

Walsh doesn't exactly bring the story full-circle, but The House has a more cohesive thematic journey than most anthology films. Overall,  The House  boasts gorgeous and unique visuals. Even if the second and third segments don't have the same visceral impact as the first, the movie is a showcase for up-and-coming animation talent, and it is a delightfully bizarre viewing experience from beginning to end.

Step into the stop-motion world of The House, debuting on Netflix Friday, Jan. 14.

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Netflix’s stop-motion nightmare The House goes to places you really can’t unsee

The three-story anthology is beautifully detailed, effective horror, but you may have Cats flashbacks

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Maybe it isn’t saying much to note that Netflix’s stop-motion film The House features the most disturbing, skin-crawling, stomach-flipping vermin-based musical number since the 2019 CG-fest Cats . After all, there isn’t much competition for that title. But it should count for something that this collection of three weird animated stories is so capable of unnerving an audience with something so gleeful and playful. The film isn’t traditional horror, but it has deep-rooted horror elements that may creep up on viewers, just like those dancing parasites do.

Two of The House ’s three stories look like they could take place in the same world as Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox : The protagonists here are similar anthropomorphic animals, constructed with the same kind of softness and warmth, and sometimes operating with the same kind of anxiety-fueled chattiness. But where Fantastic Mr. Fox is a quaint, homey fantasy, The House heads much further into the surreal stop-motion territory of Czech artist Jan Švankmajer. The film’s visual style is deceptively cozy, but the stories are anything but.

In the first of the three 30-minute segments (titled I, II, and III), a family of four living quietly in the country are thrown off-course by a visit from some hateful relatives, who sneer at the father, Raymond ( Watchmen ’s Matthew Goode) for the modest ambitions that have him living in such a small, rural home. Shortly after that, a mysterious, eccentric architect offers to build the seething Raymond and his dubious but supportive wife Penny (Claudie Blakley) a lavish new home, on the condition that they move there and never leave. Their young daughter Mabel (Mia Goth) is horrified by the changes in her parents when they move into their vast new mansion, where silent workers are constantly disassembling and rebuilding everything around them, and elaborate meals appear in the dining room every night, provided by unseen hands.

The segment’s messaging about what makes a house into a home is simple enough, and so is the obvious horror-story progression of the plot. But Belgian directors Emma de Swaef and Marc James Roels tell their story with eerie, effective touches. Unlike the characters in the other two segments, Mabel and her family are human — but they’re an unusually soft and shapeless form of human, with bulging felted faces and beady little features, all set close together. They look like blurry Aardman Animation characters — Wallace and Gromit, but out of focus, or as if they’d melted a bit after being left out in the rain. The house around them is more concrete and looming, and it dwarfs them and makes them feel less real as the story progresses. The segment feels like a child’s nightmare, with an ending to match.

In the second segment, from Swedish director Niki Lindroth von Bahr , the characters are rats. While the bones of the house and the lines of its exterior are exactly the same, it seems to be a different place entirely — an airy, spacious home located in a bustling city. A contractor, an ambitious up-and-comer credited solely as “Developer” (and voiced by musician Jarvis Cocker), has taken out a clearly ruinous loan in order to refurbish the place as a no-expenses-spared showcase for modern luxuries, from imported marble floors to phone-integrated mood lighting. But the house is infested with hard-to-eradicate fur beetles, which have other ideas for the place. And that somehow ties into a different form of home infestation that the Developer has a hard time shaking.

Of the three segments, this one is both the creepiest and the least satisfying. Horror stories certainly don’t have to be morality tales, but it’s never fully satisfying to watch a character endure terrible tortures for no clear reason. The Developer’s war against the beetles is laced with irony and inevitability, but there’s no particular sense that he invited it. The things that happen to him aren’t rectifying some cosmic wrong, or laying out some important theme for the viewer. It’s like watching entropy in action. It’s meant to be mordantly funny to watch his exasperation as events escalate and his life falls apart, but viewers with empathy — or an aversion to maggots — may want to skip this one.

The third segment, from British actor-director Paloma Baeza, eases away from the oppression of the first two stories. This time, the residents of the house — now surrounded by floodwaters in a softly post-apocalyptic setting — are anthropomorphic cats. Like the Developer, the house’s owner, a calico named Rosa (Susan Wokoma), is obsessed with renovation and profit. She’s been running the place as a boarding house, but after “the floods,” most of her residents abandoned her, and she’s left with only two tenants, neither of whom can pay rent. Elias (Will Sharpe), a shy black cat with a clear crush on Rosa, and the easygoing hippie-cat Jen (Helena Bonham Carter) gently dodge her hints about payment, and when Jen’s guru friend Cosmos (Paul Kaye) arrives, he further complicates the situation.

Like the first two chapters, the final story centers on a single-minded striver obsessed with her house, and watching her ambitions deflate around her. But where the first story is chilling and the second one is saddening, the third has other ambitions that make the whole project fall more clearly into place. All three parts were scripted by Irish playwright and screenwriter Enda Walsh (best known for 2008’s gutting historical film Hunger , directed by Steve McQueen and starring Michael Fassbender). And while Walsh’s scripts don’t initially seem to take place in the same world or have much in common, apart from the house’s layout, this third segment brings all three into focus.

All three parts of The House have their nightmarish aspects, often literally, as reality shifts around the characters, or ordinary objects are imbued with dread. In spite of the furry characters in the second two stories and the child protagonist in the first, this anthology isn’t meant for children. It isn’t violent or sexual, the usual signs of “not for children” fare, but its focus on unnerving the audience and unmooring the characters from reality makes it a more adult saga than most stop-motion projects.

And so does the central theme, about the ways the characters’ obsessions with and attachments to the house hurt and limit them. All three of them associate the house with a prosperity they’re lacking and a future they can’t reach, and all three of them are warped by it. But only Rosa, in the movie’s final moments, is handed a solution. It seems significant that she’s also the only one of the three leads with friends who care about her and want to help her, even if she doesn’t recognize what they’re doing as help. None of the main characters can see past the fantasies they’ve concocted for themselves, until they’re forced to by circumstances. For all of them, the house looks like a promise, but it’s actually a prison.

The audience for that message may be a little limited, much like the audience for a collection of stories this dark and (in two cases) cynical. But the craft of The House itself should be enough of a lure to draw people in. Like so much stop-motion, this movie lives in its details — the rich textures of the characters, their clothes, and the objects around them, the elaborate dollhouse qualities of their worlds, the clear sense of care and time that went into building these sets. Viewers may be put off by that nauseating parasite musical routine, with its singing, dancing creepy-crawlies and their grotesque enthusiasm. But it’s hard not to appreciate the sheer amount of work that went into crafting this threefold fever dream, and the directors’ 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 streaming on Netflix now.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The House’ On Netflix, An Animated Dark Comedy About A Big Creepy House In Three Different Timelines

Where to stream:.

• The House (2022)

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It’s hard to describe an animated dark comedy as “grim”, but that word kept popping into our heads while watching  The House , which consists of three “episodes” about a massive, creepy house in three different timelines. Why is it so grim?

THE HOUSE : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: The House is an stop-action animated film that’s billed as a dark comedy; in the film, three stories are told, all involving a massive, creepy house that feels like it’s bigger inside than it is outside — and it’s pretty big on the outside.

In the first story, directed by Emma de Swaef and Mac James Roels, an impoverished family in the 1800s is given an offer they can’t refuse. Raymond (Matthew Goode) is shamed by his grouchy aunts and uncles when they come to see baby Isobel (Elanor De Swaef-Roels). He wanders the woods drunk, and receives an offer from an eccentric millionaire named Van Schoonbeck (Barney Pilling); he’ll build his family a mansion for free if they abandon their modest house. The house is huge and a bit airless, and older daughter Mabel (Mia Goth) finds that the millionaire is constantly making changes, and his representative, Mr. Thomas (Mark Heap), is losing his mind.

In the second story, directed by Niki Lindroth von Bahr and set in the current day, a house flipper (Jarvis Cocker) has put all his resources into renovating the mansion. He ends up completing it mostly by himself and loves what he sees… until he finds an infestation of fur beetles. Still, an open house is coming and he wants to make sure the house is ready. Most of the prospective buyers there show little interest, except for an odd couple (Sven Wolter and Yvonne Lombard) who say they are “very interested.” They’re so interested, they essentially move in. Did we mention that they’re all rats?

In the third story, directed by Paloma Baeza and set in the near future, the house is the only thing still dry in a completely flooded city. It’s now an apartment complex, and the landlord, a cat named Rosa (Susan Wokoma) — she’s literally a cat, as is everyone else in this story — is determined to renovate the mansion. But she can’t get rent from her two remaining tenants; a young man named Elias (Will Sharpe) pays her in fish and a hippie lady named Jen (Helena Bonham Carter) pays her in crystals. When one of Jen’s mystical friends named Cosmos (Paul Kaye) comes to visit, Jen is shown that it’s time to let go of the house, but she stubbornly wants to stay put.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Weirdly enough,  The House reminded us of the “Dollhouse of the Damned” episode of  The Haunted Museum , maybe because they both use stop-action animation.

Performance Worth Watching: We most enjoyed the performances in the third story, with both Wokoma’s turn as the exasperated Rosa and Carter’s voice performance as the free spirited Jen.

Memorable Dialogue: Not sure why, but every time little Elanor De Swaef-Roels burbled as Isobel, she had our attention. Yes, what she said wasn’t exactly “dialogue,” but it did stick in our minds more than any individual quote.

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Like we mentioned at the top of this review,  The House bills itself as a dark comedy. But in reality, it’s more “dark” than “comedy”. In fact, the first episode is so grim and creepy, with the puppets’ tiny faces, we were praying that the second story would change at least the tone.

We were happy to see that was the case, even if all the characters were rats. By making them rats, we wonder if Lindroth, the segment’s director, was insinuating that if anyone will survive this world, it’ll be the rats and fur beetles. The tone of it was definitely lighter, though the developer’s desperation was palpable throughout, especially as he tries to sell this boondoggle of a mansion to prospective buyers who all seem indifferent. The weird couple that invade were certainly off-putting, to say the least, but it gave someone for the developer to bounce off of, rather than just mutter to himself.

The third story had the most hope, even though it describes a very plausible environmental disaster. It’s not a coincidence that it has the most complete story and the best performances. We don’t quite know why Rosa wants to desperately hold onto the mansion despite the entire city being underwater, but at least there’s an arc there where she finally learns to let that go, and she’s rewarded for it.

Through all three stories, the animation is the star, with the textures of each character’s fur or skin manipulated as much as their limbs and heads are, and the movement made so smooth as to make the viewer forget it’s a stop-action animated film. Despite the grimness of the stories, the expressiveness of the animation is what kept us engaged.

Our Call: STREAM IT.  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.

Will you stream or skip the animated dark comedy #TheHouse on @netflix ? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) January 15, 2022

Joel Keller ( @joelkeller ) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com , VanityFair.com , Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream  The House On Netflix

• Stream It Or Skip It

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‘the house’: film review.

Amy Poehler and Will Ferrell try to pay for their kid's college with a homemade casino in Andrew Jay Cohen's directing debut 'The House.'

By THR Staff

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A couple of desperate, super-square parents embrace their inner badass in The House , turning a friend’s abode into a full-service casino to raise around 500 grand in a few weeks. Sound unlikely? You don’t know the half of it. Having penned two surprisingly funny parents-gone-wild hits with writing partner Brendan O’Brien ( Neighbors and its sequel), Andrew Jay Cohen makes his directing debut with this variation on the theme. But the third time is anything but charmed for this luckless effort, which is unlikely to return even close to what producers expected when they teamed Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler with the successful screenwriters.

It’s telling that Warner Bros. is sneaking this release out sans critics’ screenings despite its well-liked stars: This House will likely collapse under its word-of-mouth burden.

Release date: Jun 30, 2017

Where Neighbors stars Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen played new parents, comically unsure they were equipped to care for a newborn, Poehler and Ferrell’s Kate and Scott Johansen are old hands, the kind of sweet dorks who believe they’re their daughter’s best friends and may actually be right. Much in the picture’s first half-hour puts one in mind not of the earlier films’ rite-of-passage friction but of “why isn’t this funny?” star vehicles about middle-aged misbehavior like 2010’s Date Night . It might help, this time around, if we believed an ounce of the setup.

The couple’s daughter Alex (Ryan Simpkins ) is about to graduate high school and has been accepted by her first-choice university. But her upstanding parents, with their large and comfortable home, appear not to have even thought about tuition during her youth. They’re breezing along, expecting her to get a full scholarship, and they’re right — until they aren’t: The village of Fox Meadow traditionally sends one of its young grads off to college for free, and Alex is chosen to be that girl. But a weasely councilman (Nick Kroll ) decides those funds would be better spent on a town pool, and the scholarship is canceled. Cue some less-funny-than-sad scenes in which Scott and Kate beg for raises, loans and new jobs to no avail.

While we’re chuckling about the state of America’s middle class, the couple’s friend Frank (Jason Mantzoukas ) — enjoying his own comic value as a gambling- and porn-addicted burnout whose wife has left him — has a brainstorm: The three should transform his emptied-out house into an underground casino, inviting bored neighbors over and milking them for a few hundred grand. (He even installs five wall safes, explaining exactly how much each holds, so we can track their progress toward their goals.)

Early on it’s revealed that Scott is a disaster with numbers, breaking out in a sweat when asked to add and easily mistaking thousands for millions. It’s best at this point for viewers to temporarily embrace that innumeracy , because anyone who cares even a tiny bit about math will find the rest of this plot too absurd to contemplate. Unless Fox Meadow is home to quite a few Google stockholders, and Frank’s home is much bigger than it seems, the scale of money-making and spending we’re about to witness simply does not compute.

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Set it aside. More problematic is that the film arguably gets to its midpoint before eliciting a single laugh. As they realize how much cash they’re raking in, the three buddies start looking to Casino for lifestyle tips. Kate rediscovers her love of weed; Frank acquires a get-my-life-back swagger; Scott … well, Scott looks like Will Ferrell was given five minutes and told, “be a cool gangster, make something up.”

Scott accidentally becomes The Butcher, an enforcer collecting what gamblers owe the three partners. And while some moments of out-of-proportion violence will get viewers laughing (the best of them involves a much-abused Jeremy Renner, in a cameo as an honest-to-goodness mobster), the more cliched bits of gangsta attitude accompanying them (think a way-watered-down version of Office Space ‘s fax-smashing scene) may harsh the buzz.

At this stage, it’s fruitless to complain that the plot developments that ruin all this fun make absolutely no sense in law-enforcement terms, and that our heroes’ solution to their dilemma is stupider still. Better, perhaps, just to note that, at a couple of points in the film, a viewer might imagine this scenario playing out with teenagers at the wheel, kids running a gambling operation under their parents’ noses in the spirit of Risky Business and trying to pay for the college educations those grownups can’t give them. As very funny people are running around onscreen doing very unfunny things, it’s hard not to be distracted imagining how much better that other movie might be.

Production companies: Gary Sanchez Productions, Good Universe, New Line Cinema, Village Roadshow Pictures Distributor: Warner Bros. Cast: Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler , Jason Mantzoukas , Nick Kroll , Jeremy Renner, Ryan Simpkins , Allison Tolman Director: Andrew Jay Cohen Screenwriters: Brendan O’Brien, Andrew Jay Cohen Producers: Andrew Jay Cohen, Joe Drake, Jessica Elbaum , Will Ferrell, Nathan Kahane , Adam McKay, Brendan O’Brien Executive producers: Bruce Berman, Richard Brener , Michael Disco, Toby Emmerich , Marc S. Fischer, Chris Henchy , Steven Mnuchin , Spencer Wong Director of photography: Jas Shelton Production designer: Clayton Hartley Costume designer: Christopher Oroza Music: Andrew Feltenstein , John Nau Editors: Evan Henke , Michael L. Sale Casting: Allison Jones

Rated R, 87 minutes

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Netflix's the house: all 3 story endings explained.

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Warning: Contains MAJOR SPOILERS for The House Netflix's stop-motion anthology, The House , is creepy and complex, and all three story endings require careful explanation. The House film features three separate tales linked only by their themes and setting: the titular house. This anthology series combines detailed and intricate stop-motion animation with a dark tone and creepy atmosphere in order to create a truly unique experience.

The House also features some subtle and, at times, even political themes. The Netflix series tackles issues such as class, materialism, and climate change. Combined with the horror elements of the first two stories, The House develops into something much more mature than one might expect from stop-motion animation. Each of the three short films features an ambiguous ending that requires consideration of the ideas presented more so than a straightforward understanding of the plot.

Related: Tim Burton's Favorite Horror Movies

The first story in the House anthology recounts the strange events that occur after the patriarch of a family makes a deal with a wealthy architect. They move into a newly-built house, in exchange for their own more modest home. The second film takes place in the modern-day and is about a property developer struggling to combat the house's bug infestation while dealing with the arrival of two unwanted guests. The final short film is set in a future where the planet has experienced a seemingly apocalyptic flood. Rosa, the feline landlord of a house barely above water level, is frustrated by her two tenants' refusal to pay rent. She must then contend with the arrival of an eccentric visitor. Here's a detailed explanation of all three The House film endings.

The House 's first story, titled "And heard within, a lie is spun," takes on the atmosphere of an old folk tale and ends in a grim manner reminiscent of those kinds of stories. After being neglected by their parents, Mabel and Isobel, the two children of the family, escape the burning mansion after their parents are transformed into furniture; the father into a chair, and the mother into curtains. The trajectory of this horrific fairy tale outlines a clear moral. The opening of the film shows that despite living in poverty, this family is close-knit and loving. It is only after a visit from some affluent extended family, who are eager to belittle the family and their home, that Raymond is shown drinking and depressed. He and Penny subsequently agree to the architect's strange deal. Their decision is clearly born from a feeling of shame regarding their economic circumstances and a strong desire to live up to the family's expectations. While Mabel is shown as being perfectly content with their life, the opening scene clues the viewer into how this materialism has been internalized even by her. She is seen playing with a large dollhouse, imagining a conversation between her and her aunt Eleanor, in which she compliments the " lovely house ."

It's clear that this The House film story is about an attachment to superficial signifiers of wealth and opulence, something that comes at the expense of the characters' humanity. They become the things they desire. Aunt Eleanor had passive-aggressively commented on the curtains in their " dismal " house, something Penny clearly took to heart as she then spends all her time sewing curtains once they move into the mansion. Whereas Raymond starts burning the furniture from their old house, in a desperate attempt to rid himself of his past. Of course, this fire will eventually consume everything. However, the ending of The House's first tale is somewhat hopeful in that it allows for the possibility of the children, the younger generation, to escape this self-destructive materialism, as Mabel and Isobel are shown surviving this haunted house .

Part 2 of The House , "Then lost is truth that can't be won," features perhaps the most nihilistic ending of all three stories. The protagonist, a developer, after being completely overrun by unwanted guests, seemingly reverts to his animalistic nature. Along with the rest of the house's new inhabitants, he consumes his surroundings — furniture, decorations, and various commodities. It seems that the developer has given in to a primal urge, something that comes in stark contrast to his previous behavior, which showed the character as desperate to achieve his goal of refurbishing and selling this house. This sudden turn indicates that the character has experienced a complete breakdown. He is last seen scurrying into a tunnel in the rotisserie oven.

Related: Where To Watch Hangman Online (Netflix, Hulu, Prime)

While the story's bleak ending , reminiscent of Kafka's Metamorphosis, seems strange and surreal (as do each of the three endings in The House anthology), its meaning is quite clear. The rat spends the entire film trying to fend off a vermin infestation, as well as get rid of two unwanted guests (who also have the appearance of giant bugs). He is obsessed with renovating this house and making it presentable. This property becomes his personal project, which causes him a lot of anxiety. This ending simply shows the natural consequence of that gradual buildup. He abandons the superficial pursuit of finding self-worth in material things and instead reverts to a kind of state of nature, where everyone is seemingly free to do and consume whatever they want. The idea of " property " is non-existent. There's also the likely possibility that all of this surreal and ambiguous ending is simply a hallucination caused by the boric acid the rat has been using to kill the bugs (the chemical that sent him to the hospital). Perhaps this is all a dream he is experiencing at the hospital.

This final story featured in Netflix's The House anthology, titled "Listen again and seek the sun," ends with the landlord, Rosa, finally letting go of her dedication to the house, deciding instead to sail away with the other characters. The story opens with Rosa listing the tasks she must perform to maintain the building. She is seen struggling to stick wallpaper to the walls, representing her struggle to keep on top of all the different jobs that need doing. She is portrayed as determined, but also frustrated. Rosa is clinging to outdated ideas about property and money that don't really make sense in this new world. Her tenant, Elias ( yet another anthropomorphic animal ), makes this apparent to her, noting that the water level will soon rise and start to flood the house, but she remains committed to the idea of finding new tenants. It is only after Elias' departure that Rosa realizes he could draw, indicating that her fixation on being a landlord had prevented her from seeing the full character of her tenants. She perceived them as nuisances who didn't pay their rent on time.

Talking to Jen, Rosa reveals that her plan was to make " a home with good memories for myself ." Jen advises that she should love her past, but " travel on ." Whereas The House 's first story shows the beginning of the materialist mindset, born out of the frustrations of class envy, and the second film presents something of an overreaction to the pressures of modern life, perhaps retreating too far in the other direction, this final story shows the overcoming of our present-day materialism. Rosa must move on and learn to grow out of her fixed vision of the world, and so the story ends with her literally uprooting her habitat and moving forward, in search of a different kind of life.

How The House's Endings Are Connected: The Movie's Real Meaning Explained

The plot of the Netflix anthology series The House has a lot to say about consumerism, capitalism, and tenancy. The themes of the animated features are hot-button current topics in the United States today, and all three are connected by a common thread. The first story depicts the rise of consumerism, which is rolled in with the setting. While no concrete time frame is given, it looks to be set during the Gilded Age (around the same time as Downton Abbey ), a period in which consumerism was on the rise with the advent of department stores and catalogs. Class division during this time was particularly palpable, and Raymond feels the only way to combat his status is to buy into the new house. Becoming consumed with the capitalist spirit, Raymond and Penelope burn all of their old possessions, and the fire inevitably leads to their downfall.

Related: Why Tim Burton Needs Stop Motion To End His Losing Streak

Like the message of Don't Look Up , consumerism and capitalism also lead to the downfall of Part 2's unnamed developer. As part of the literal "rat race," the landlord does his best to flip and sell the house, but the stress of the housing market drives him insane. Rather than just sell the house, he lets the unwanted guests take over and fully succumbs to his madness, suggesting that the only course consumerism and capitalism can lead to is insanity. While Rosa from The House Part 3 doesn't face the same bleak circumstances as the other characters, she's also driven to make money and feed the consumerist machine in a world plagued by climate change disasters. All in all, the three endings are linked to the subjects' futile attempts to live a consumerist lifestyle in a capitalist context. The absurdity and futility of trying to live a stable, fulfilling life in the grip of a crushing economic system are what drive Netflix's The House film forward and bring bitter endings to each chapter.

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• The House (2017)

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The House Reviews

Even movies like Requiem for a Dream and Midnight Express contain more laughs than The House.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Sep 22, 2021

The stars play the hands they've been dealt as best they can, but the script is so feeble that it's no wonder the film is a bust.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Dec 20, 2020

Unless you're new to the Will Ferrell or Amy Poehler school of humor, this is as generic a "comedy" as you might expect.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Oct 10, 2019

They say the House always wins. Unfortunately, that's not the case in this hit-and-miss comedy from first-time director (and co-writer) Andrew Jay Cohen, but there are still some guilty-pleasure laughs to be had along the way.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 1, 2019

The House is a strange and surprisingly dark film, a funny movie whose humor comes from unexpected places.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 12, 2019

It's not a shining example of a great comedy, but The House is funny and creative enough to mildly recommend if you're looking to switch your brain off for 90 minutes.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 20, 2018

An honourable failure, "The House" needs more jokes but has an interesting bleakness (and a terrific cameo from Jeremy Renner as a mafia boss) that makes it worth a look. Just never forget that The House always wins.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 19, 2018

Unfortunately, the hand that was dealt The House is a royal flush - but not the winning hand every poker player dreams of being dealt. Nope, it's the humorless kind. The kind that swirls down the comedy commode.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Nov 11, 2018

[The House] has just about enough worthwhile gags to hold your attention.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Nov 11, 2018

It's an interesting premise, but then when you watch the execution, it's awkward. Not a lot of laughs.

Full Review | Jan 25, 2018

In a year in which studio comedies failed on so many levels, The House was surprisingly okay and there's nothing wrong with that.

Full Review | Dec 31, 2017

Cohen just can't seem to make the tonal shifts work, and the film falls prey to some cringe-inducing scenes in its second half.

Full Review | Dec 28, 2017

...what happens when improvisation runs out of steam.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Dec 20, 2017

Also, for as energetic and outlandish as Will Ferrell is, it's Jason Mantzoukas that winds up stealing the whole movie, matching and surpassing his co-star in every way. The house does indeed always win, even if the rewards here are slim at best

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 5, 2017

Despite a worthy cast and a fun premise, this comedy feels like a missed opportunity.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.0/4 | Oct 31, 2017

The setup of The House is so bleak that its humor by necessity must be scathing in response. But The House doesn't want to be scathing, it wants Ferrell to do his man-baby thing while Poehler struts around with a butane kitchen torch.

Full Review | Oct 16, 2017

A scattershot mess that's unsatisfying, despite showing signs of real potential.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 11, 2017

Unfortunately, this collaboration is not one of their best.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 19, 2017

Despite two talented leads, The House suffers from a script that doesn't utilize their talents, ultimately becoming forgettable as a result.

Full Review | Sep 10, 2017

The most insulting comedies are the ones that feel like glorified cast retreats.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/10 | Jul 27, 2017

House of the Dragon Is Getting Review-Bombed for the Dumbest Reason

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House of the Dragon has become a massive hit for HBO, but alas, audiences always have to find something to complain about , and this time it’s a kiss from the latest episode, 'Smallfolk,' that has people up in arms and review-bombing the acclaimed series over on IMDb . The moment came toward the end of the episode when Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) engaged in a sapphic kiss that sent sensitive snowflakes to the website to cast their stones, accusing the series of pushing "the agenda."

Per Vanity Fair , the kiss has brought out the worst in folks, with IMDb users crying foul over the tender moment, which, according to Mizuno, was unscripted. So far, a whopping 35.3% of people have given the episode a 1-star rating , compared to 23.1% who awarded it 10-stars. User ahmedraheemjasim said that the moment will surely "drag the storyline to its doom," while Rexiony claims that "we continue to watch unnecessary scenes just to make the series 1 season longer."

House of the Dragon

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Taking place about 172 years before the events of Game of Thrones , House of the Dragon tells the tale of the rise of the Targaryens, the only family of dragonlords to survive the Doom of Valyria. The popular HBO spinoff show first starred Milly Alcock and Emily Carey as Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower before they were replaced by Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke, who play the older versions of the characters. Also starring in the series is Matt Smith (Prince Daemon Targaryen) and Paddy Considine as Rhaenyra’s father, King Viserys Targaryen.

"It appears that last-minute script alterations were made by an actress just before filming commenced, leading to an ultimately unsatisfactory outcome," says samturkihome, referring to the kiss added by Emma D’Arcy .

"I don't know why production companies think like this. You have a great story and novel. If you apply it letter by letter, you will succeed. But you are arrogant and add your own agenda, and you know what I mean," says maam-23909. No, what do you mean, maam?

User mohareg further adds that they don’t want to be bombarded with "hidden messages" while watching TV. "Supporting hidden agendas and messages has gone too far. The presence of series and movies is for entertainment and relaxation from work pressures."

Further reviews called it the "worst episode ever" and "a very trivial series," with user afm-84692 adding, "It is very bad because inappropriate scenes were used that do not represent us religiously, ethnically, or socially, and this is unacceptable. Scenes like this are promoted by international platforms in order to pass this idea on and make it seem normal and unproblematic. Therefore, I say I hope that the next episodes will be free of such content."

Yes, It’s 2024 and We’re Still Dealing With This

You would think that by now people would be used to seeing a same-sex romance on screen. After all, 'Lesbian' was the most viewed category on PornHub in 2023 (yeah, we went there), so it’s a wonder more people aren’t praising the scene in House of the Dragon . Sadly, some would rather hide behind their archaic beliefs and condemn hardworking writers and actors, rather than just going with the flow and accepting that LGBTQ+ people are, in fact, people, and have a place in entertainment as much as anyone else. It’s not an "agenda," its representation, something that Hollywood is still struggling with in this day and age .

House of the Dragon Star Is Just as Shocked as You Are About That Character Reveal

House of the Dragon’s Steve Toussaint says his (new) sons will play a major part in this season's conclusion.

Unfortunately, House of the Dragon is just another in a long line of shows, like The Last of Us , that have faced backlash over a same-sex relationship, proving that maybe society hasn’t come as far as we’d like to think. With news of Benedict and a possible same-sex coupling being the focus of Season 4 of Bridgerton , we can undoubtedly expect Netflix to face the same ire as HBO, once again leading to another article like this one.

House of the Dragon is available to stream on Max.

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, chaz's journal, great movies, contributors.

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In theory, any movie starring Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler —with a supporting cast that includes Jason Mantzoukas , Nick Kroll , Michaela Watkins and Rob Huebel —should be comedy gold.

In theory, these actors should be able to just show up, be themselves, tap into their formidable improvisational abilities and let the laughs flow freely.

In reality, though, movies require scripts. They require actual characters and dialogue and narratives that evolve in ways that are logical, or at least engaging. “The House” has two credited screenwriters: first-time feature director Andrew Jay Cohen and his frequent collaborator, Brendan O’Brien, who also teamed up to write the “Neighbors” movies and “ Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates .” But the result is loose to the point of being sloppy, with allegedly wacky outtakes before the closing credits that provide a glimpse into the production process.

Ferrell and Poehler can only do so much with barely-there characters in half-baked situations. Because they hardly feel like people—about halfway through, I realized I didn’t even know their characters’ names—the extraordinary scheme they’ve concocted for themselves makes no sense and has no momentum. It also has no laughs, or at least precious few, which is why a movie with this caliber of star power is being sneaked into theaters without being shown to critics ahead of time. 

Also in theory, besides being a raunchy, R-rated comedy, “The House” aims to be a movie that reflects our current economic reality, in which it’s not necessarily guaranteed anymore that our kids will go to college, build careers and establish better lives for themselves than we have. But that’s at odds with the way these characters actually live, one of the many glaring inconsistencies that plague “The House.”

Ferrell and Poehler star as Scott and Kate Johansen, nerdy suburbanites who live in a spacious home in a charming, leafy village called Fox Meadow. Their teenage daughter, Alex ( Ryan Simpkins ), has just been accepted to her dream school of Bucknell University. But for some reason, Scott and Kate never set aside any money for her college education; despite their well-off status, it’s unclear what they do for a living, and in an unfunny running bit, Scott is terrible with numbers. So they rely on the annual scholarship the town awards—only this year, soulless city councilman Bob (Kroll) plans to use that money for a lavish community pool.

On an ill-advised trip to Las Vegas with their gambling-and-porn addicted pal, Frank (Mantzoukas), they hatch a scheme to create an underground casino in Frank’s house. He’s in the middle of an ugly divorce, and his angry, estranged wife (Watkins) has cleared out much of the furniture, so there’s plenty of room for a craps table and a roulette wheel and such. Frank even sets up a bunch of safes for stashing the cash. Since they’re the house—and the house always wins—they should make enough money to pay for Alex’s college education in no time.

In and of itself, this is not a hilarious premise. Ostensibly, the sight of soccer moms and doughy dads showing up, letting loose and losing their money is intended to provide some knowing laughs: “It’s true! We get old and we get lame.” But “The House” escalates into such debauchery and depravity so quickly, it’s jarring, and it depletes the film of essential comic build-up. All of a sudden, the casino features a fight club between housewives in yoga pants and a spa that provides massages with happy endings. The clientele includes Wall Street blowhards doing blow on any surface they can find. And the real criminals in town, led by Jeremy Renner in an all-too-brief cameo as a mob boss, show up to shut them down.

Cohen cuts so briskly from each scenario to the next that they never register. And the most significant shift of all—the one that occurs within Scott and Kate—is the most extreme and the least plausible. Out of nowhere, she’s smoking pot non-stop and he’s reinvented himself as an enforcer known as “ The Butcher .” They start wearing flashy, gangster-style clothing. And in case we couldn’t detect for ourselves that they’ve entered shady territory, the theme from “The Sopranos” plays in the background at one point. 

This idea of a husband and wife tapping back into their former wild side worked much more successfully in the “Neighbors” movies—especially the first one—because they firmly established who Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne ’s characters were, as individuals and as a couple, before they allowed their primal urges to take hold. Here, Ferrell and Poehler—fellow former “ Saturday  Night Live” cast members who also co-starred in “Blades of Glory”—barely seem to know each other, much less enjoy any sort of chemistry.

“The House” is the rare raunchy comedy that actually could have stood to be a little longer—and not just by padding the running time with outtakes.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film credits.

The House (2017)

Rated R for language throughout, sexual references, drug use, some violence and brief nudity.

Amy Poehler as Kate Johansen

Will Ferrell as Scott Johansen

Ryan Simpkins as Alex Johansen

Cedric Yarbrough as Reggie Henderson

Andrea Savage as Laura

Andy Buckley as Craig

Rebecca Olejniczak as Hot Poker Dealer

Steve Zissis as Carl Shackler

Natasha Key as Meg

Jason Mantzoukas as Frank

• Andrew J. Cohen
• Brendan O'Brien

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• Jas Shelton
• Michael L. Sale
• Andrew Feltenstein

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Speak No Evil

A family is invited to spend a weekend in an idyllic country house, unaware that their dream vacation will soon become a psychological nightmare. A family is invited to spend a weekend in an idyllic country house, unaware that their dream vacation will soon become a psychological nightmare. A family is invited to spend a weekend in an idyllic country house, unaware that their dream vacation will soon become a psychological nightmare.

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House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 6 Recap: For the Girls

A little something for Rhaenyra, as a treat.

Spoilers below.

Lannister troops (including literal lions in cages ) are just about prepared to march on Harrenhal on behalf of the greens, but they won’t advance until Aemond joins them with Vhagar. Their leader, Jason Lannister, sends a request via raven to his twin brother, Tyland, who sits on Aemond’s council. Aemond scoffs at the order. He’d rather form an alliance with the Triarchy to break through the Velaryon blockade. Alicent disapproves; they could instead team up with the Greyjoys, but they haven’t answered her letters. Wasting no time, Aemond orders Criston Cole and his troops to strike Harrenhal before Daemon raises his army. He’ll join with Vhagar “when the time is ripe.”

When the council is dismissed, Alicent tries to reason with her son, but his power has already gone to his head. Aemond fires her from his council and encourages her to stick to “domestic pursuits.” *Eye roll*

The black council on Dragonstone is in a more experimental mode. Corlys Velaryon, now Hand of the Queen, is present as Rhaenyra begins her search for potential dragonriders. The first recruit is Steffon Darklyn, one of her knights. (Somewhere in their family trees, the Darklyns and Targaryens are intertwined.) He nobly accepts the challenge, knowing it could end in death.

In Harrenhal, Daemon faces his latest demon: his late brother Viserys. (Welcome back, Paddy Considine! These hauntings are a great excuse to bring back the season 1 cast, aren’t they?) In this vision, Daemon revisits the moment when Viserys passes him over as heir and chooses Rhaenyra instead. When he wakes, he’s had enough with these visions. He tries to leave Harrenhal and passes Alys Rivers on his way out. “Something’s wrong with me. Someone poisoned me,” he says to Alys, the strange woman who has offered him suspicious cups to drink during his stay here. (Sorry, were we not to believe that she played a part in his madness?) In his desperation, Daemon asks Alys for help, and she directs his focus to House Tully. It might not be the biggest house in the Riverlands, but it is the most stable. Do nothing now, she suggests as an owl flies in an perches on her arm; in three days, “the winds will shift.”

Back in Dragonstone, Rhaenyra and her crew summon Seasmoke for Ser Darklyn’s dragon driving test. The beast seems to obey as Steffon carefully approaches, but just when he thinks he’s succeeded, she burns him with dragonfire. Rhaenyra is appalled. Seasmoke flees. The scene promptly switches to Alyn of Hull (not-so-subtly hinting that the right dragonrider is in this direction). Corlys invites him to sail with him when his ship is ready.

Lord Bartimos (oh so that’s what his name is), a member of Rhaenyra’s council, burdens her with an unsolicited lecture after Steffon Darklyn is barbecued live. Fed up, Rhaenyra slaps him in the face. “It is my fault, I think, that you’ve forgotten to fear me,” she says. But in reality, she’s guilty that she led Ser Steffon to his death. She’ll look for dragonriders again, but who would want to try after hearing what happened? On the bright side, Mysaria says Rhaenyra is gaining favor in King’s Landing among the smallfolk. After all, lambs are brought into town to feed the greens’ dragons, and yet the people starve. We even see Ulf (another dragonseed ), with fellow townspeople in King’s Landing, resenting the royal family’s lavish feasts.

Back at the green’s council, Larys Strong tries to weasel his way in as Aemond’s Hand of the King, but Aemond says nice try . He has Larys fetch his grandfather, Otto Hightower, to return to his seat instead. Good(ish) news arrives: Aegon has regained consciousness; he just might survive after all. Aemond then visits his brother to find out what he remembers before his great fall. Did Aegon realize that his own brother tried to blast him off his dragon? But Aegon says he recalls nothing, and Aemond leans into his barely-healed wounds. Ouch .

In the Vale, Rhaena comes across the patch of scorched earth and a smoked lamb carcass. The tiny dragons she brought over from Dragonstone couldn’t have been responsible for this. It turns out Lady Jeyne Arryn lied to her; there is a large dragon in the Vale, but it’s a wild one. She received word that Prince Reggio has agreed to host Rhaenyra’s youngest sons and Rhaena in Pentos, but Rhaena doesn’t seem so happy about the news.

On Driftmark, the camera zooms in on Alyn shaving off his silver hair before getting aboard the ship with Corlys—who, if you haven’t figured it out by now, is his father. Addam still seems to be hopeful that Corlys will claim them as his sons and heirs, but Alyn isn’t.

Mysaria informs Rhaenyra that their “gift is sent.” What gift? the audience and Jace all ask in unison. Canoes filled with food float onto shore at King’s Landing, each carrying a black and red Targaryen flag—signaling to its recipients that Queen Rhaenyra is behind this gesture. But the windfall turns into chaos as the townspeople rush and fight each other for food, including Hugh Hammer and his gorgeous half-bun updo.

Alicent is worried that her father, Otto, hasn’t responded to her letters. She catches up with her brother, Gwayne (did you forget he was here too?), who also hasn’t heard from him but assures everything’s fine. She asks about her son, Daeron, who is currently squiring in Oldtown. According to Gwayne, he’s now 16, “stalwart,” “clever,” and popular with the ladies. Most importantly, he’s kind—unlike his older brothers. Alicent and Criston Cole share a longing look from across the courtyard before he and Gwayne set off for Harrenhal.

When Alicent and Helaena stop at the Great Sept to pray, they are booed by the townspeople, who have now turned on the greens even more following Rhaenyra’s gift. One man even grabs Alicent and a member of the kingsguard slices his arm off with his sword, sending the crowd into full-on rebellion. “Long live Queen Rhaenyra!” they shout while beating the knights as Alicent and Helaena run for shelter.

Larys Strong’s latest scheme involves empathizing with the bedridden Aegon. He talks to the king about what it’s like to have a disability in this world: “They will underestimate you and this will be your advantage.” Aegon begs for Larys’ help—it worked.

Daemon wakes from another Viserys dream to learn that Lord Grover Tully is dead, following his illness. Alys Rivers even “volunteered her own craft” but couldn’t save him (or is she, perhaps, the reason why he died?). Now the young Oscar Tully, who Daemon can easily manipulate, is the Lord Paramount of the Riverlands. Daemon cries; he can finally get his armies.

Addam once again sees a dragon flying overhead, but this one—Seasmoke—swoops down and chases him into the forest. Addam is cornered, but the scene is cut before we can find out whether he’s burned alive or he takes a ride. Considering he’s also a dragonseed, I’m thinking the latter.

Rhaenyra’s spirits are low as she chats with Mysaria in Dragonstone. She doesn’t think she can win the war and she senses that Daemon, her husband, has turned on her. Mysaria opens up about her mysterious past: She reveals she was sexually assaulted by her father. And when she became pregnant, she was stabbed in the stomach to end the pregnancy—she still has a scar—and left for dead. She’s understandably had trust issues since then, but with Rhaenyra, she’s seen and valued for who she really is. Rhaneyra rushes to embrace her. And as they linger in each other’s arms, they start to kiss.

But, dammit, just when things are about to escalate, a knight interrupts them with news. Ugh, men! Always interrupting! He tells Rhaenyra that Seasmoke has been flying over the Spicelands— yeah, yeah, a likely place for him to be , Rhaenyra essentially says, trying to get back to what she was doing—but, it seems the dragon has a rider. Oh.

Unfortunately for Mysaria, the moment has passed—for now. Rhaenyra mounts her dragon, Syrax, and flies off to find out who the new dragonrider is, despite her son calling after her to stay behind. But we’re certainly hoping that this isn’t the last we see of Rhaenysaria (Mynera?); because if we’re not going to let the girls fight in battle out here, we might as well let them kiss!

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Full Transcript of Biden’s Speech on Ending His Run for Re-election

“The best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation,” the president said in a rare Oval Office address. And he told voters, “History is in your hands.”

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President Biden delivered remarks from the Oval Office on Wednesday on his decision to abandon his bid for re-election. The following is a transcript of his speech, as recorded by The New York Times.

My fellow Americans, I’m speaking to you tonight from behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. In this sacred space, I’m surrounded by portraits of extraordinary American presidents. Thomas Jefferson wrote the immortal words that guide this nation. George Washington showed us presidents are not kings. Abraham Lincoln implored us to reject malice. Franklin Roosevelt inspired us to reject fear.

I revere this office, but I love my country more. It’s been the honor of my life to serve as your president. But in the defense of democracy, which is at stake, I think it’s more important than any title. I draw strength and find joy in working for the American people. But this sacred task of perfecting our union is not about me, it’s about you. Your families, your futures.

It’s about we the people. And we can never forget that. And I never have. I’ve made it clear that I believe America is at an inflection point. On those rare moments in history, when the decisions we make now determine our fate of our nation and the world for decades to come, America is going to have to choose between moving forward or backward, between hope and hate, between unity and division.

We have to decide: Do we still believe in honesty, decency, respect, freedom, justice and democracy. In this moment, we can see those we disagree with not as enemies but as, I mean, fellow Americans — can we do that? Does character in public life still matter? I believe you know the answer to these questions because I know you the American people, and I know this:

We are a great nation because we are a good people. When you elected me to this office, I promised to always level with you, to tell you the truth. And the truth, the sacred cause of this country, is larger than any one of us. Those of us who cherry that cause cherish it so much. The cause of American democracy itself. We must unite to protect it.

In recent weeks, it has become clear to me that I need to unite my party in this critical endeavor. I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future, all merited a second term. But nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition.

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