By Robert Scucci | Published
The other day I was pleasantly surprised when I came across The house on Netflix. Initially, I was looking for animated programming for my children to enjoy over the weekend. When I saw the title card of The houseI knew immediately that its content would depend on the surreal and macabre aspects of domestic life, and the TV-MA rating all but confirmed my assumption that I shouldn’t show The house soon to my 3 and 6 year old children.
Parental caution aside, I watched The house for my own personal enjoyment, and I’ll tell everyone I know who has a Netflix account to check out this dark, animated anthology until they get tired of hearing me talk about it.
The house is divided into three 30-minute segments on very different timelines within the constructions of the same mysterious house erected at the end of the 19th century. As The house took me from a picturesque past to a bustling present to a not-so-distant future suggesting the end times are fast approaching, I was captivated by every frame of this brilliantly animated Netflix special.
Story 1: And heard inside, a lie is told
The first part of The house on Netflix begins with a poor family receiving a brand new house built by a mysterious architect named Mr. Van Schoonbeek (Barney Pilling). The family, consisting of sisters Mabel (Mia Goth) and Isobel (uncredited), and their parents, Raymond (Matthew Goode) and Penny (Claudie Blakley), move into their new, fully furnished and staffed home. While Raymond, a drunkard, and Penny, a seamstress, are seduced by the elegant home-cooked meals and the beautiful design of the house, Mabel has a bad feeling about the new living situation.
Communicating primarily 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 hide in the shadows while slowly transforming the house into an unrecognizable and inescapable maze. Despite Mr. Thomas’s assurances, Mabel fears that the house will eventually swallow up her and her family.
Story 2: Then the truth is lost and cannot be won
Moving forward to modern times, the eponymous house of the Netflix special is now surrounded by a vast cityscape occupied by anthropomorphic rats. At first I rolled my eyes at the obvious pun that modern life was a rat race, but in this context it works surprisingly well. Centering on an unnamed rat developer (voiced by Jarvis Cocker), this second piece shows how desperately he needs to finish his renovations and get the house back on the market so he can pay off his business loan.
The house starts out in a state of disrepair, but only until the developer’s efforts to combat a relentless insect infestation and fix countless structural and electrical problems through his own shoddy, half-crazed contracts take center stage. After laying off his entire team, the developer works alone to make sure the next open house goes off without a hitch. As he finds himself deeper and deeper in debt, he slowly begins to unravel.
When the developer fails to sell the house, a few interested buyers decide to move in and invite their families to live in the residence against the wishes of the developer.
Story 3: Listen again and seek the sun
With past and present stories aside, The house immerses spectators in its third and final act.
Even though we’re still looking at the same house that launched this Netflix special, it may just as well be an entirely different home because of how the world has changed around it and influenced its architecture. In a town 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), an unlucky and hellish landlady. about restoring his childhood home which now functions as a dilapidated apartment building.
On this timeline of the Netflix special, the house is surrounded by a seemingly endless body of water which made me wonder when Kevin Costner was going to sail in to save the day at the Aquatic world. One of Rosa’s tenants, Jen (Helena Bonham Carter), brings her spiritual partner, Cosmos (Paul Kaye), to the house to help with the renovations, since he is supposedly a competent contractor. Instead, he tears up the floorboards in order to build rafts so that everyone can sail to a new life before the entire town is flooded beyond habitability.
Streaming The House on Netflix
The house is easily one of the most exciting animated specials I’ve seen in a long time. For a special animated entirely by stop-motion footage, each character moves fluidly with an earnestness and sense of curiosity that some live-action content would struggle to replicate. If I had to summarize The house in a word, I would say that it is “deliberate”. Each segment presents a moral conundrum rooted in the supernatural, effectively exposing the humanity of each fabricated character as they are consumed (figuratively and metaphorically) by the very house in which they live.
You can broadcast The house on Netflix, but you might want your kids not to watch this one.
