Netflix’s Supernatural Horror Anthology Makes You Question Home

By Robert Scucci
| Updated 3 seconds ago

The other day I found myself pleasantly surprised when I stumbled upon it The House on Netflix. Originally, I was looking for animated programs for my children to enjoy over the weekend. When I saw the title card for The HouseI knew straight away that its content would depend on the surreal, macabre aspects of domestic life, and the TV-MA rating all but confirmed my assumption that I shouldn’t be showing The House for my 3 and 6 year old anytime soon.

Parental warning aside, I am watching The House for my own personal enjoyment, and I will tell everyone I know who has Netflix counted to look at this dark animated anthology until they got tired of hearing me talk about it.

The House broken into three 30-minute segments on completely different timelines within the drawings of the same mysterious house built in the late 19th century. Like The House Taken from a dated past, to a busy day, to a distant future that suggests the end times are fast approaching, I was captivated by every frame of this fantastic animated Netflix show.

Story 1: And Having Heard Inside, A Lie Is Turned

The first installment of The House on Netflix begins with a poor family who gets a brand new home built by a mysterious architect called Mr. Van Schoonbeek (Barney Pilling). The family, including Mabel’s sisters (Mia Goth) and Isobel (uncredited), and their parents, Raymond (Matthew Goode) and Penny (Claudie Blakley), move into their new home, fully furnished and staffed. While Raymond, a drunkard, and Penny, a seamstress, are charmed by the fine scratch meals and the magnificent design of the house, Mabel has a bad feeling about the new living situation.

Communicating mainly with Mr. Thomas (Mark Heap), Mr Van Schoonbeek’s employee and main point of contact, Mabel becomes increasingly suspicious as creepy contractors work through the night, constantly change the floor plan, and lurk in the shadows as the house slowly transforms . an unrecognizable, inescapable labyrinth. Despite the assurances of Mr. Thomas, Mabel fears that the house will eventually swallow her and her family whole.

Story 2: Lost Then It’s True You Can’t Win It

Moving on to modern times, the Netflix special’s house is now surrounded by a sprawling cityscape occupied by anthropomorphic rats. At first, I rolled my eyes because of the obvious evil about modern life as a rat race, but in this context it works surprisingly well. Focusing on an unnamed rat developer (voiced by Jarvis Cocker), this second installment shows how desperately he needs to finish his renovations and get the house back on the market so he can make amends for his business loan.

The house begins to fall into disrepair, but only until the Developer’s efforts to fight a relentless bug infestation and fix countless structural and electrical problems through his own outrageous, half-assed contracting take center stage. attention After firing his entire crew, the Developer works alone to make sure the upcoming open house goes off without a hitch. As he finds himself deeper in debt, he slowly begins to unravel.

Although the Developer does not successfully sell the house, a couple of interested buyers decide to move in and invite their family to reside against the Developer’s will.

Story 3: Listen Again And Look For The Sun

With past and present stories out of the way, The House pushes viewers into its third and final act.

Although we’re still looking at the same house that started this Netflix special, it could also be a completely different domicile because of how much the world has changed around it and influenced its architecture. In a city now occupied by anthropomorphic cats, who I can only assume were brought in to take care of the rats during the second story, we are introduced to Rosa (Susan Wokoma), a down-on-her-luck landlord . on the restoration of her childhood home which now functions as a dilapidated apartment building.

In this timeline in the Netflix special, the house is surrounded by a seemingly endless body of water which made me wonder when Kevin Costner going to sail in to save the day and la Water world. One of Rosa’s tenants, Jen (Helena Bonham Carter), brings her spiritual partner, Cosmos (Paul Kaye), to the house to help with the renovation because he is supposed to be a qualified contractor. Instead, he tears up the planks in order to build rafts so that everyone can sail out to a new life before the entire city is flooded beyond the point of being habitable.

Stream The House On Netflix

The House is one of the most charming animated programs I have seen in a long time. For a special that is animated entirely through stop-motion sequences, each character moves fluidly with a seriousness and sense of curiosity that some live-action content would struggle to replicate. If I had to summarize The House in one word, I’d say it’s “intentional.” Each segment presents a moral conundrum rooted in the supernatural, revealing the humanity of each character as they are consumed (figuratively and metaphorically) by the very house in which they live.

You can stream The House on Netflix, but you might want your kids to sit out this one.