Hausu is a 70s movie unlike anything you've ever seen before really. It starts off straightforwardly with a bunch of giggly Japanese schoolgirls planning their summer vacation and soon finds itself plunged into a wacky LSD trip-like scenario in a haunted/possessed house in the country. I usually find 70s moviemaking a bit of a trial with its headache-inducing zoom shots etc but Kobayashi makes it work here because the whole adventure is so surrealistic and trippy.
The girls, enthusiastically played, are all laughter, charm and innocent naivety but of course then they start to die. How those deaths happen is unpredictable to say the least but 'Final Destination' this is not. The film somehow remains funny and quirky throughout, despite the untimely ends met by the girls. J-Horror fans looking for Ringu scares will be disappointed as, of course, horror today has left 70s movies looking pretty tame. There are scarier things on Dr Who than in this film but that's not the point. At the time this film was made it was revolutionary in its experimental visual effects and twisted storytelling but now it is more of a fascinating curiosity, albeit a milestone in the development of Japanese supernatural moviemaking.
If you realise that you will be amazed, charmed and surprised rather than terrified, then I thoroughly recommend this weird blast from the past.