House (Hausu) (1977)

This is, without a doubt, the strangest movie I've ever seen. In the last few years, it has become a major cult film and now that I've finally seen it, it's taken a week or so to digest it all. As a horror film (which is what it's supposed to be) it doesn't succeed, it's not scary in the slightest. However, as a crazy work of art, it stands alone. The "story" concerns a bunch of Japanese schoolgirls (with character names like "Kung Fu" and "Fantasy") who spend the weekend at the home of Gorgeous' (yes, Gorgeous) mysterious aunt, who turns out to be some sort of cannibal/vampire. The aunt, aided by her supernatural powers, systematically eats the girls one by one. Nobuhiko Obayashi directs this with his foot on the accelerator, and throws everything he can at the audience. Employing surrealistic sets, animation, puppetry, stylized fake backdrops, frenetic editing. This is the closest a live action film has come to matching the anarchy of a no-holds-barred classic cartoon. It's a movie where anything can happen at any time. I would bet the farm that Sam Raimi managed to see this back in 1977. Even the Evil Dead movies can't match House's flights of fancy.