I have to say the mouse short was the weakest of the two, but the cat one is my favorite for how hopeful it is. The one about the poor family is good to watch to get a good horror vibe, which this short did a very good job.
love the video! i disagree with your conclusion, though. i think the stories connect well thematically, even though the narrative connections are weak. If all 3 titles are are put together you get: "And heard together a lie is spun. Then lost is truth that can't be won. Listen again and seek the sun" i think the whole story is about anit-materialism. the family in the first story are happy, but give into the lie that the lavish house will solve their problem. the developper in the second story keeps perpetuating the lie because the believes that selling the house for a profit will solve all his problems and even when it's clear the house is a lost cause he cannot let go of it and chooses to waste away inside of it. then Rosa encounters the same problem, where she's trying to hang on to the house and restore it to it's former glory, but she is able to break away from the cycle finally and "seek the sun". the house was never a solution to anyone's problem, but when it was partially destroyed and made into a boat it was finally able to make someone happy also, i think Rosa was trying to restore the house to the way it was whe she lived there with her parents, basically trying to "rebuild" a happier time in her life without recognising that that's an impossible task
I felt like the third story had at least a small theme of trauma and living with it. Rosa is obsessed with the house, wanting to renovate it and fix it all up (particularly by wallpapering it with pretty patterns, but the wallpaper keeps falling down), but her tenants/friends tell her that she can't stay. They tell her "You can't stay here," "You have to move on," and most importantly, "Don't be afraid." They've stuck around as long as they could, but it's been such a long time and Rosa is afraid to move forward. But she clearly wants to, as she looks up at the house and tells it "Please let me go. I want to leave." And despite Cosmos saying she can leave the property, that doesn't actually happen. The lever allows the house to detach from the land, but it's still with Rosa. She just commandeers it now, drifting out to meet her friends. The house/her trauma and past will always be with her, but she's able to control the house now. It's not a perfect analogy and obviously that's not the only take-away, but that was my own personal interpretation.
Actually I think the majority of the second short film was a hallucinated fever dream of a dying man from inhaling too much of the poison the developer was using to exterminate the furbeatles and the slow cult like clapping of the relatives of the odd couple was actually a metaphor for the poor developer's heart slowly counting down to it's last beat before it finally stops and kills the man finally ending his own hallucinated personal hell
I feel like all three shorts have a theme of control, mostly loss of control. The family loses control of their greed and autonomy, the developer loses control of his well being and property, the bug like rats probably showing just how bad everything has gotten due to him ignoring the issue, and Rosa feels that she's losing control of the house and herself, but unlike the others, Rosa is able to take control of the house with some help and adapt to the situation.
Ooh I like this interpretation! In each short the people try to bend the house to their will and it winds up making their life harder, but with the help of her friends Rosa lets go of her need to control and that seems to break the control of the house!
I also thought there was something in the fact that Mabel tries to retain parts of her peaceful life in the old house, but the comforts she's used to keep getting removed by the construction workers or burnt on the fire. Her parents are too blindsided by the promise of wealth and prestige (that a child would likely not care so much about) that they don't consider how their decision is harming their children until it's far too late.
Tbh I actually prefer the movie having a three-part-structure rather than being broken up into shorts because watching the third story and its happy ending after the last two being depressing is really effective
It really ended on a good note. I watched this late at night and was already emotionally drained. The finale was comforting and the aesthetic less jarring.
totally! i was definitely confused the first time i watched it but after that i loved it. it first part was sad but relieving, second was disturbing and bittersweet, last was calm and hopeful. after the thrid story i took a deep breath of fuuuuuuuuuuucking hell bro
I feel it’s very important to note that the strange couple in the second story looks very familiar to the fur beetle and the fur beetle larvae(correct me if I’m wrong). It alludes more to the fact that the developer is going insane. The developer also comes “home” wearing the hospital gown, which suggests he wasn’t discharged, but may have gone home on his own accord.
It honestly makes you wonder, were they even real? Personally, I don't think so. I think they were just manifestations of his own fear of poverty, the infestation destroying the house, and his own mind breaking down.
I called it as soon as they came on screen that they were basically insects disguised as rats. I thought they represented the danger of chasing other people's validation (similar to the first story) and overlooking red flags, because it attracts "parasites" who will take advantage of your insecurities.
For the second story if it's truly is about mental health, then the part where the developer research is the fur beetles and is then told how expensive they are to get rid of is a realistic depiction of how many people that identify their own mental health issues just cannot meet the financial hurdles of tackling them.
Also the second part of the story is not only mental health but also putting pressure onto yourself in working on something as we try to get things done by the deadline or we need to get things done as soon as possible but sometimes we let stress and are problems kick in as it was clear the developer put the pressure onto himself and used his dentist as a way of talking about his problems also showing not to have a friend or someone in the family to help him shows he trying to fix the problems without realizing his own problems
Here's my take on that Maybe it's about stalking and harassment and point of hypocrisy Especially about acting better than others when you're clearly no better than them or so I think
Something else about the green- I don't know when exactly this is supposed to take place, but green pigments once used arsenic to achieve their color. This was particularly true for wallpapers, which would often become moldy and release arsenic into the air of tightly sealed homes. I think that the green could also be a visual indicator for the gradual poisoning of the family.
If I remember correctly, the use of arsenic for green pigments was around the victorian era. Green was a very popular colour back then, it was the ideal colour for houses. Other colours like red makes the house give of an angry and feral vibe. I remember getting all of this in a documentary on youtube about the dangerous things that were used in the Victiorian and Edwardian era. It was 2 year ago so I can’t be sure if I’m accurate with the facts here.
@@Aku_Karya We might have watched the same documentary! I'm forgetting what exactly it's called, but there's a whole series on loads of dangerous things from various time periods in British (maybe just English?) history.
Green is also often symbolized for money and for greed plus materialism and it was a prevalent color in all the shorts (I don’t remember which major detail for short 2 bc it’s been awhile) but the wallpapers of Rosa and the family’s furniture are all green
yes!! green also serves to represent toxicity or sickness, green being on the curtains and covering the mother could of been signs of her overworking, and perhaps the father's alcoholism from overconsumption.
I feel like the dolls in the first part are actually very expressive despite their small facial features- the changes in their expressions can be subtle at times but the eyebrows on them are very lively at least. Makes them look kind of more natural even.
The last short actually gave me a bit of a feeling that she needed to get over some grief, and that her friends moved on, trying to take her with them. She's so caught up in herself and her grief that she focuses on keeping everything the same. She doesn't want it to change, but she wants it to go back to how it used to be.
Yeah and the house sailing away is her breaking from the grief that was the foundation of her life for a while because she realized that what she lost was already gone but that she could move on and be with the people who care about her in the present
For sure, this was my take as well. I keep hearing people say that she was obsessed with money, but I think the only thing she really wanted was to retain her normalcy and pretend things weren't falling apart around her- hence why she expected rent even though with her house as it is (in a location that is going to get inevitably flooded) and no plans to get off it, there was frankly no use for it she could've had. Especially not if she stayed there and was gonna invest it into a house doomed by it's location not to find any other tenants. So yeah, to me it's also about grief, and I don't mind other interpretations but I still do feel that saying she was obsessed with money is a stretch :/
Hey Steve, not sure if you'll see this but I highly recommend "The World of David the Gnome". I have a feeling it's right up your alley. Especially the final episode.
@Sun Tzu Well according to the shows lore. Gnomes can only live be 400, and David, Lisa, and Jasper are both 399. They prepare on a quest to a mountain and say goodbye to all their animal friends, including swift the fox. They then get the mountain and say their final goodbyes as they turn into trees.
The original occupants are Humans. The second occupants are Rats. And the Last occupants are Cats. It’s the humans who have a rat problem and buy a cat to solve it.
I also thought of it as First humans, then as the world becomes more populated and congested, more vermin become present (i.e. rats), and last regarding the flood in the third one, cats are usually the ones to survive natural disasters like floods and hurricanes etc over other animals.
Personally, I felt like the second story was about the danger of chasing other people's validation. The rat invested his "whole life" into the house, but he puts emphasis on tacky, surface-level glamour rather than stability. He's also very uncomfortable around people and has no real relationships whatsoever. If the house is symbolic of his image/mental health, the bugs could represent suppressed loneliness, or other problems beneath the surface which he ignores. They're not always visible, but they're deep in the foundations. Plus this all happens during a _recession_ which would add plenty of stress to his problems. The insect-rats appear at the _exact_ right moment, while he's desperately searching for a buyer (approval.) They also don't speak until he's disoriented because of the flashing lights. Despite the MANY red flags, the rat ignores obvious problems _again_ because they're "very interested in the house", and gives them everything they want until they've already established a presence. They're parasites who take advantage of the flaws in the house (the rat's insecurities.) Relationships are important in all three parts of the anthology, but here I think it's about the danger of _bad_ ones. In the end the rat goes "home" to the insects because they're the only relationship he has left. Once they drag him down to their level, there's a neat little detail where he scratches the headset off - he cuts himself off from outside. Meanwhile the house is in shambles. To me, this story resonated as a warning about how much loneliness or unhealthy, predatory relationships can destroy a person, and are no substitute for real self-worth.
I think this is a pretty good interpretation of that story. The bugs being insecurities makes a lot of sense and if you add to that Steve's interpretation then it makes even more sense. Studies have shown that insecurities and mental illness are usually connected, were the more a person is insecure the more likely are they to subs abuse. Which in the context of the story makes a lot of sense. Especially when you consider the fact that the rat only starts using the poison when he see's the bugs
There is another lttle detail i caught. Tere are two kinds of bugs, the larva and the beetle. And the ressemble the Rats, one os white and long-stretched and the other, dark and short. Perhaps it's showing how the issue was slowly growing without the developer realisng.
@@cubonefan3 I don’t think he even knew he was phoning his dentist. Who on earth would send hotel ideas to a dentist? Why on earth would anyone ask a dentist to say a little prayer or call them pet names? He was also tying up the phone line which can put other patients at risk. The developer should have been living in a prison.
7:13 That is the most resilient baby I have ever seen,I'm also surprised he didn't analyze the mother still saving her children even after becoming furniture
I feel as though the third short might also have a message about moving on, and growing up, as shown by Rosa breaking down as her friend sail away, perhaps being a metaphor for them moving on and letting go of the past. While Rosa however refuses to let go and is transfixed on the idea of renovating the house. However with the help of her friends, Rosa finally pulls the lever, a symbol of her finally excepting what she must do (The fact that Cosmos has to build the lever out of the house she cares about so much might also link to something). Very well presented video as always, great work Steve!
@@Missqueenfairy I was thinking more about grief. Since Rosa had a photo of her family, I took it to represent an attachment to what she felt was an ideal life that may have 'died' with her parents/ with her losing them
I found the second story to be funny on account of the characters being rats. A pest animal living akin to a human, having to struggle with bugs, another parasitic entity, now that's funny. I interpreted this short to have been an allegory for the falsehood of self-image. Our guy is pretending desperately to be something that he isn't and gets involved with the wrong crowd who reveal to him his darker side. Or maybe the story was on the concept of inevitable self-destruction and self harm, physical and mental. I think it ties with third story because Rosa does break away and becomes someone better, while the developer further indulges in his bad habits.
I'm not sure what was meant to be shocking about the developer the reveal that the developer is gay or the fact that he had been sexually harassing his dentist
@@williampulfer-melville8536 His sexual orientation is debatable, but also not really the point here. And I don't think that was the take away of the story. Shocking would be how easily he went mad and feral.
@@kimeraclan3135 indeed plus maybe the fact he sexually harassed his dentist may have had something to do with him as you said he has some kind of mental issues maybe he only refers to his dentist as darling as a way of coping that he is actually sad and alone
Not to mention the setting! If this is really a post 2008 recession, wouldnt that stress make you wanna go back to monkey? Loosing your life, your sanity over imaginary money and the like. Also i'm not an economist but if I understand correctly, the recession was caused by making and selling mortages that looked good on the outside but where actually worthless? Idk please correct me
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One other easter egg that connects the stories ist the fact that the house, in the second short, is located in a road named after the architect of the house in t first short. It's called Van Schoonbeek lane.
I definitely like the second story the most. It’s definitely a story about mental illness to me and the “infestation” turning into a bigger and worse problem represents him failing to cope or treat his illness and letting it take over after trying to conceal it. This story was very creepy and the imagery was horrifying. I love it! 9/10
Yup. The rat keeps putting band aid "fixes" but the issues run deep; they're foundational. The cheap fixes he makes are akin to unhealthy coping mechanisms, like retail therapy, substances, etc. The more he tries to ignore the problem, the bigger it gets, until he suffers a complete mental collapse. I also find it smart that they made him a rat, often seen as vermin themselves, who himself is trying to rid the house of vermin.
i always assumed that the moral of the story, shared by all three vignettes, is that it is people, not a building, that makes a home. because in all three stories, the house is still in the process of being made into a home: mabel and her parents are perpetually moving in, the developer is repairing it to sell, and rosa is attempting to repair it. in all three cases, the house remains unfinished, and the people who live in it slowly become obsessed, thereby ignoring the “home” they already had with other people. consider: mabel’s parents, who feel dissatisfied with their worldly possessions and the scorn they bring them from those who have more, fall in love with the houses furnishings such that they become them. they allow themselves to become furniture in the architect’s dollhouse while their daughters become neglected and are eventually chased out. meanwhile, their parents who gave the house their soul, are punished and burned. the developer already has no one. he projects his loneliness confusedly on his dentist, likely reliving the intrapersonal trauma which forced him to throw everything he had into the house. again, here is a character the house punishes: he drives himself insane trying to make the house perfect, to give it meaning, but it’s meaningless, material nature is thrown back into his face in the end. it and he are destroyed by bugs. finally, rosa. rosa already understands that the stability the house provides in the flood is waning, but she denies it. she pours what little material she has into the house so that she can be safe and “home” within its walls. but this almost costs her the home she already has with her friends. she is almost punished in the same way as those who came before her. but she isn’t, because she realizes what they did not: a home is not a structure. it is not a refuge, or some infallible thing which one can last and provide safety forever because nothing is, nothing works that way. rather, the only “home” one can have are the bonds they have with others, and once she accepts that, and gives herself over to the unknown with the people she loves, then she’s freed. i think the film is a bit of a memento mori, but a kind one. it redefines the natural urge we feel towards “home” by taking the most familiar icon of the concept-a house-and making it strange, unfamiliar, and frightening. thus we see, home is not the building, but the people inside it.
I think the house itself is a memento mori. I noticed that the house exists in the past, present, and future, with various inhabitants and their fleeting concerns and worries.
Although I agree that the first short is the best one, the last short is actually my favorite. Even though it doesn’t have the horror feel like the first two, I felt the characters in the last one were the most relatable and the story itself was uplifting and it could make a good series based off of that one
I found it quite interesting and haunting. The movie is called "The House", right? So it is suppose to represent that it is indeed the same house in all 3 shorts, yet each one of them is ruled by other creatures, and each receiving different fate both for them and the house. Is that symbolising something between all of them or the house itself? Are the events happening in different times? Maybe in parallel universes? It really makes you think. And not to mention really dark.
Yeah. Each short had an even deeper meaning to me. I used to help my dad with rental houses as a kid. Then he was given a house by his late father recently. It was a hoarder house. We rennovated it and still are. Its been 6 years in the works and the last song in this film really hit home. "This house is... I don't know what it is.....What is a house more than a collection of bricks?" These are the main thoughts we all had when we got it. And as the lyrics go, you can hear the evolving perspective and thoughts we've had on this journey. We saved the house for the the family sentimentality. It drove a wedge in between some family. And the more we do, the more exhausting it is and more just needs to be fixed. In the end, even though it means a lot to my dad. He came to the same conclusion. And about a year ago he said, "Ya know, it's just a house. The memories here have come and gone. It could create more, but they'll probably be more negative from here on out. If you think about it, it's really just an organized pile of sticks and bricks." He's decided to sell it. And everyone is happy with that decision.
It's also worth noting that the husband of the odd couple in the second story has had his lines recorded last year as the guy that did his voice actually passed away last year
That could be a good analysis for short 1. The rich man gives properties painted with arsenic to poor people in exchange for their home, knowing that the poorer people will die, and he will end up with another property, while losing very little.
Not humans in the first short! Dolls! It's a dolls' house! That's why dolls, mice and cats live in it, it's supposed to be small! :) Watching the third part, I got the wrong end of the stick and misinterpreted it (probably) - I saw Rosa as recognising there were things she cannot control (the flood) and focussing on things she could (the house), not able to confront the flood and move on like everyone else. It gave me such a strong sense of anxiety, and when the flood had reached her house and she was out of options, aside from a kill switch that she was informed would 'help her leave', I assumed it was a suicide lever and foolishly spent the last few minutes crying my eyes out because OF COURSE she would run out of options and kill herself. Then when I actually WATCHED was happening I was like Ah! Her friends have helped her! The third short was by far the most emotionally charged and horrifying for me, purely because I assumed it was a build up to her suicide. Really misinterpreted it!
I like the second story the most. To me, the main theme is pests. The 'people' of this world are mice/rats, considered a pest animal, and the main is dealing with pests. But it's not just him dealing with them, he is BEING a pest towards his dentist because he has no friends, probably because of his unpleasant and clingy personality. He seems to get more desperate in his phonecalls, won't listen to the guy on the other end telling him to stop calling him pet names, hanging up on him, etc. It parallels with the two mice who won't leave the house no matter how much the developer asks, he's more or less getting a taste of his own medicine, and when the police come to take care of his pest like behavior, he acts completely oblivious to the fact that what he was doing was wrong, and he follows this up by accidentally poisoning himself and reducing himself to a feral pest that also aids in destroying the house, being his own undoing and with his last connection severed, he has no one but the other pests around him.
It’s my favorite, too. I love Kafkian characters where the main protagonist, for no good reason othen than the author’s pure sadism, gets into unlucky and strange situations they have no way to survive.
It might just be me, but the odd couple in the second short actually look like a beetle (the short, stout one) and a larva (the elongated one) to me, which would actually present an interesting connection between the developer trying to get rid of one kind of pest while another one is moving into the house
I think you could go a bit farther with the metaphor. Continuing the pest idea, they bear such a resemblance because that's how people, in general, view people struggling with active addiction; i.e. as a waste of efforts and resources and undeserving of any attention beyond what it takes to get rid of them, despite the fact that most aren't bad people at heart, just incredibly ill. Problem is, treating people like rats for years on end becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, of sorts. Addiction will break you down until you're essentially just living on "animal instinct" and doing things you would never consider doing when sober. You're not "living" at that point, but merely surviving from day to day. The substance(s) take over your life and *everything* you do is in the sole instance of getting that next high, day in and day out. The real horror, however, is that nobody has to live that way. Given the correct support and resources, people can, and do, recover. Back in January, I had my 10 year anniversary of being in recovery. But I'm painfully aware of how easily I could have gone down a different road and ended up in prison or even dead. I'm lucky enough to have a supportive family that was able to get me into one of best programs in the country. Despite popular belief, most people can't "just stop" and there are millions of people on wait lists. And even the programs that exist are, many times, woefully ineffective because you're being discharged before the brain can do any significant healing.
I remember seeing this on Netflix and though it was gonna be a Dark humor stop motion film, and boy was I wrong. The scene that really fucked me up was the part where the mice just ate the house, I couldn't sleep for days.
The first short was definitely my favorite too. It kind of reminded me of Coraline in a way, not just because of the stop motion, but because it felt like a dark fairy tale that would have absolutely terrified me as a kid. The way it’s presented with Mabel as the point of view character for most of it really heightens the horror for me, with the lack of control she has over the situation and the way most of the adults are totally useless.
Here's my interpretation on why the second and third shorts are centered around anthropomorphic animals rather than humans. I believe your interpretations of the messages are spot on. Yes, I think the second short revolves around mental illness and not getting the help that you need, and the third short is meant to represent a person who is close-minded to moving on. But what I realize is that the creatures used to present these characters are actually motifs to represent their issues. Having the developer be a rat is meant to symbolize how mentally ill people are viewed. A rat is viewed as something disgusting, something that spreads filth and disease, and something that should be an outcast, even if it is incredibly intelligent. This is how some people treat the mentally ill: like nuisances that are less human than everyone else. The rats that turn into fur beetles can also represent things like anxiety, depression, or possibly even trauma. Sometimes, these things creep around in our minds, and no matter what we do to get rid of them (therapy, meds, etc.), it seems like they just keep popping up out of nowhere, and they will never go away. That's kind of what infestations do. Not only are infestations the things that lurk around in the cracks, where we can't see them, but they are also unwanted guests that stick around through and through. Having Rosa being a cat and having her house in the middle of a flood can be seen as a metaphor for how it seems as though she is stuck in her old ways. Most cats are terrified of water and refuse to swim. This is meant to show how she doesn't just refuse to change. It's almost like she can't. Like it's too scary for her. Also, the lever turning the house into a boat is meant to portray the idea that there are ways to change, and that it isn't as scary as it seems.
Yeah I picked up on the rat thing too. I can see why it would be confusing initially tho. But the way I see it, the reason the developer was a rat was to represent how others saw him. A vile, lowdown creature unworthy of attention. That’s why he latched onto the dentist, and why he let the insects walk all over him. I think his mental illness manifested itself in a way where he sought acceptance in a world that rejected him and looked down on him. Which can be how some people with mental illness can perceive the outside world. And that can be how some people treat others that have mental health issues. A pest. A burden.
it's one big psychological film to me. each short deals with different concepts that i will list here short I - societal expectations short II - mental health short III - emotional attachment but that's my take on it.
I like this idea, but I think the stories focus on more sociological concepts than psychological, though there’s definitely a lot of both. Short I- societal expectations Short II- societal stigma of mental health Short III- the importance of community. Short I and II show how the structure of society forces us to value certain things like saving face and wealth, that can put your body and mind at risk in the process. Short III however has a more positive take on things and stresses the importance of having people around you and not isolating yourself.
Oh yeah same here the vibe I got after The black cat died was feeling u get after someone u cared about commited suicide but that version fits way better
@@MasterBuilderDragon honestly, I am not a fan of that theory, as I am not a fan of those "the chatacters were all actually already dead" interpretations of movies in general. Just because in a movie/series a character says the phrase "move on" it doesn't mean that they have to realize they're dead and must go to heaven or something
I personally feel like the second story is one of someone suffering with mental health issues. I personally struggle a lot with them, given I can't afford meds, and can recognize a few unnerving similarities. The first thing that usually comes before I know I'm about to hit a stark down turn is the intrusive thoughts. They pop up abruptly, as a little thought, usually of self harm. As soon as you find the first thought, a thousand more come up, and more and more and more until it's a tide of crawling biting thoughts, ideas, and memories. The movie does a good job of showing how you can't really get rid of them, just move past them, sometimes with the assistance of drugs, or other things. The infestation is the visual representation of it. Then comes the decline. At first it's just a normal part of life, and rationality has a hard grip, but has sadly been weakened by the apathy of others. It's hard to console someone who suffers from these things, only tell them they need professional help and move on. The potential buyers coming in and ignoring what are obvious desperate pleas could represent the feeling of isolation, of being trapped inside your own head. Then the buyers mucking the place up is someone else having an issue and trying to vent or offload it onto you. You're already stressed, and really don't need this, and it's an inconvenience at worst but when you're already tired and worn down it becomes a snowball effect that leads right down the mountain. Next is the actual delusions, hallucinations, and other severe effects. For me it usually comes in the form of a whispered thought that my friends only tolerate me out of pity, or that some of them aren't my friends at all and only want things from me. I also have minor hallucinations where I feel something on my back, and sometimes, even though I can't see it, I know it to be a dead dog that hangs off my back and tells me these things. I know how absolutely insane that sounds, which is good. As for the Developer? He was far too slow to act as his symptoms worsened, letting them disrupt routines and daily life. I won't touch on how incompetent police are when handling someone with a mental health crisis, and move on to the last step. The final step is the fall. It's like everything in the world is slowly getting darker, lights are getting dim, voices blur and fade away, kind of like in those horror movie sequels where the main character sees something that throws them back to the first movie. It's an overwhelming tide, and it kind of feels how Everywhere at the End of Time sounds (and I know it's about Dementia). You could try and fight it, but it'll only exhaust you and frustrate you and make things worse. You could try and seek help, but you can't afford professional care and everyone who *could* have helped has already left. In the end you're alone, and have to retreat into the safest and darkest place you can. A lot of people are lost there, due to self harm or an unending cycle keeping them in the last three steps, while others learn to suffer through it and hold on until the storm is over. It looks like the Developer is stuck in the cycle though. Did I help you beat the Algorithm monster by typing this essay?
@@zanehayes4380 as someone who used to suffer from the same issues as op, please don’t do this. One of the hardest obstacles when trying to get better was people telling me I was hearing real angels/demons/spirits.
I feel like it was beneficial to the third story to have that second story come before it because after the second story ended with the developer going insane I was fully expecting the third story to have a depressing ending, thus I was really pleasantly surprised when the ending of the third story was more positive.
When it comes to the second story, I do have a theory, but it might be a bit of a strech. I think you overlooked that not only is the house a state of mind but also that the Developer was trying to sell it. I feel like it was representing him trying to gain friends and aquaintences but since he has been acting weird noone felt like doing so. Plus if he did sell it it would be a fair trade - he would give them house and they would give him money (although when it is all symbolic I guess money would be shown as friendship and contact). When the strange couple barge in and decide to live there, they don't give anything in exchange. Like toxic friends. Since they made him feel horrible, not only at the end they started looking and acting like those bugs (mental ilnesses) but the Developer was also trying to cope with them by using drugs, like with bugs I dunno, it came to my head 🤷
Yes! As a person who struggles with mental health, the scene where the couple picks him up from the hospital is really spot on with the comfort some mental illness give you. Cuz even if its something you know is not good for you it will always be there for you
The House more feels like an SCP to me. It's change in location, characters, and the way it affects/represents the owner's mental state gives off SCP vibes.
I think the second story was the most interesting.. the fact that the bugs were welcoming him home at the end was such an interesting metaphor to me! It was definitely about mental illness
Yeah the bugs remind me of the kinds of predators who force their way into your life when you are at your lowest - like how mentally ill drug users often get "cuckooed" (where a group of predatory people take over your house)
I love how each underlying meaning comes together despite all stories being in something of alternative universes. The first representative of materialism, the second mental health, and the last having both elements, but slowly healing and moving forward (not necessarily letting go since we see the house being taken with her; instead more along the lines of slowly healing, which is more realistic to actually recovery.)
with the second short, i expected the weird couple and their "family members" to be the furbeetles that have combined together as a disguise after gaining sentience, kinda like how you see kids in cartoons sitting on each others shoulders to sneak into the cinema, i thought they were going to kill the developer as revenge for him constantly trying to get rid of them
Yep, same here. From the moment I noticed that their character designs resembled bugs, and how the film made parallels to them and the bugs in messing up the place.
The choice of making the characters in Act II serves to emphasize the story of the infestation. Bugs are arguably the most common type of pest, but one of the other most common pests is mice and rats. This also plays into how the odd couple and their relatives look and act like the fur beetles, following the description of destroying anything and everything, and the developer joining them in their destruction of the house. After fighting the infestation for so long he became the thing he saught to destroy. A pest.
"I think the house represents life. The first story: the family has the opportunity to live a better and more wealthy life, and you can slowly see that the only people who care about the material things are being consumed by it. The lights represents how they are blinded by the materialistic things and the lavish lifestyle." - Buzz Lightyear
To me, I kind of had the interpretation of each short revolving around the theme of control. The family being controlled by the new house and the man who made it, the contractor losing control of himself when things are going awry, and Rosa releasing the control that the house has on her.
I felt the third short was about death. Elias, Jen, Rosa and all of the other tenants had died during the "flood" and the stagnant state of the house represents limbo. All of the other tenants had moved on and accepted death but Rosa is still hanging onto her life, Jen and Elias stayed to try and help free her. Cosmos was just a spirit guide assisting the last few souls escape and Rosa joining her friends was her acceptance of death
Steve, a film I HAVE to suggest Restart the Earth. It's a sci-fi, drama, Chinese film, and also live-action. Pretty much, it's about humans creating a drug to save the earth so the plants can survive, but the drug works *too* well, and plants take over the earth and kill everybody, excluding a few survivors.
Throughout the 3rd story I felt there was more to the friends, specifically with Elias. I saw an idea on Rosa having some trauma and it made me think more about her parents, we see a picture of them and I wonder if the reason shes so focused on money and the house is because that was her parents dreams, their desires and the house was possibly the only thing she has from them ... Maybe they left her alone and she is cutting herself off from her friends and even having her own family. She doesn't want to be hurt again and so she doesn't try to get close. Jen is supposed to be the motherly/sisterly friend she needs, explaining why she's able to vent to her compared to Elias. Cosmos is supposed to be the Caring father who actually focused on what Rosa was needing and helping her become her own self. And Elias was missed opportunity, he drew pictures of her from afar, not really something you would do normally abd he was more focused on her personal health/survival than emotional journey. I think he had some form of crush on her, wanting to be close but she didn't see it and ignored it. I think that's probably why he left first, he didn't have to stay, being a fisherman he could probably live on his own quite easily but he stayed for her, they all acted as a reason for her to grow, cosmos was the help she needed, Jen was the guidance and gentle push, and Elias was the straw that broke the camel's back for lack of a better phrase, leaving hurt Rosa more than she was expecting and it started letting her see everything and eventually grow
That would make sense as Jen and cosmos give unconditional support while Elias gives fish like a provider (such as a husband would)What's good about this short though is she's the only one with a happy ending.And there's a reason too.In the first short, the family moves in and there's problems, yet they flat out ignore, not even bothering to cover them up, yet embraces them.The 2nd short, the developer takes notice and tries to cover them up.And in this one, she tries to take better care of it but as we, it doesn't work by herself.The entire time, she tries so hard to take control of the house.But in the end, the house takes control of her, yet in a much happier way than the others.Because in this one, she finds happiness.In the first short, we see a family full of greed who, upon moving in, notice problems of the house and choose to ignore.The 2nd short shows us someone who's dealing with mental health and only has toxic friends who don't give anything in return.He notices the problems yet chooses to board them up and try to suppress them.In the last one however, she notices and tries to take charge, and at first ignoring her support, she gets nowhere.Its not until after she decides to let go and move on with them that she can finally be the one to take control of the house, where in the other 2, the house takes control of them.The way I see it, the house is meant to just be one big metaphor for life.The family in the first one let's their lives control them, the 2nd one does nothing to fix it yet insteads buries it down, and the third one where she let's people into her life, granting her the gift to finally take control and find peace.
I think the theme of obsession and delusion is super interesting, especially when the first short directly contrasts with the third short. In the first short, the decision of letting go of the old house is the downfall of the family, with an obsession for materialism. In the third short, the *refusal* to let go was almost Rosa's downfall, with her obsession about normalcy and keeping her home. Van Schoonbeek is like a devil figure, tempting the family with a "new life" and exploiting their insecurities, compared to Cosmos's savior role, giving Rosa a means to escape and adapt to the changing world. In all three shorts, the characters struggle with the delusion that everything's fine and normal. The parents are deluded with wealth, the developer is deluded with appearance, and Rosa's deluded with the status quo of the past. The parents ignore the strange happenings and the suspicious nature of the deal because they're blinded by the surface-level glamor, neglecting their children until it's too late to right themselves. The developer neglects himself and the house, trying to keep up the appearance that everything's all fine when he seriously needs help that he refuses to ask for (and *can't* get anyway if the police snubbing his literal calls for help says anything). Rosa focuses on money because she wants to keep up the illusion of normalcy, ignoring a genuine support system (keeping her healthy physically and mentally) to ignore the impending doom literally outside her home. The cycle of getting lost in a delusion and meeting your doom is only broken with Rosa when her support systems helps her realize what's really happening to her and giving her the means to break out of the metaphorical and actual fog. She might not have left the house in the end, but it stopped being her prison.
My suggestion is that the crux of the second story is repression. Whatever the Developer's problem (represented by the fur beetles) really is, his solution (poison/drugs) doesn't work. So he resorts to repressing it; dressing the house up nicely and trying to pretend as though nothing is wrong. But the root issue is still there, and soon re-emerges as the strange couple. They behave exactly like the fur bugs: they move in, trash the place and scare away potential buyers, act like they own the house, and invite their family in. The same problem with a different appearance. Ultimately the Developer returns to his original solution of poison, which we already know won't work. When that fails he succumbs to his demons, which now take a strange halfway shape between the couple and the fur beetles.
I really like the second short. I suffer with depression and psychosis, and I struggle to say what I actually feel, because it’s difficult to explain. This does an excellent job at showing how a problem in the mind can be patched up and fine, but slowly it will continue to infest your mind if you don’t take the proper steps to care for yourself. It takes time, and you can’t shortcut. The rat poison feels like a direct connection to drug use to destroy the problems, either pharmaceutical or illegal. Although they can be used for management, they’re never a solution, especially the illegal ones, and as a result he ends up in the hospital, with none of the infestation gone but feeling worse. Him calling his dentist constantly and calling them “darling” could be a problem with isolation, or a problem with psychosis, which the police don’t care about because the mental illness behind it doesn’t matter to them. I’m guessing it connects more with people that have spent their lives struggling mentally. I’ve spent my entire life calling my head a café because I can physically hear the hustle and bustle constantly, even if it’s completely quiet. I spent years ignoring it and trying to tell myself it will go away, because my parents just ignored it, so I should too. But it just gets worse if you patch up the cracks and pretend everything is fine.
Last year I was hospitalized, and it was only really in the last couple months I realized just… how horrible my mental state was. It was psychotic depression, and like you said it’s not possible to describe. You watch a bunch of movies, and see how the media depicts mental illness so you basically determine “oh, I’m not experiencing any of that so it can’t be too bad” and the whole time I was genuinely afraid that I would lose myself. I was spacing out and entirely losing varying periods of time, I heard people calling my name, and I experienced the worst dread and paranoia I’ve ever felt. There are good metaphorical depictions of it, like the second short, but really nothing can describe or prepare you for the sensation of psychosis and how it completely consumes you.
I absolutely LOVE your interpretation of the second short. I didn’t think of it that way. My original take on it (I only viewed the film once) was that the film focused on three parties when it comes to a house; The Tenant, The Developer, and The Landlord. All shorts except for the second one seemed to have variations of each party in my initial interpretation. The first film has a landlord (Mr Van Schoonbeek), tenants (the family), and developers (the builders.) The third has a landlord (Rosa), tenants (Jen an Elias), and a developer (Cosmos). The second one is what put a pause on this connection for me.
I like the theory and it helps make sense of a line that sent me reeling. When the developer meets the rest of the family, it is mentioned the house was originally theirs(or something along those words) this could allude to them being the landlords. The tenants could thus be them again or be the bugs (or they are one and the same).
lol, when i started reading your post, i thought the connection was to the three shorts; first short is the tenants, 2nd short is the developer, and 3rd short is the landlord- which could be one (still pretty slim) thing that tie the three movies together
I think the second story is more of a Kafka's story (bugs, mental illness, unlucky protagonist). And you know the only Kafkian characters who gets an happy ending are the ones from unfinished stories.
Definitely feel like the 3rd short was more about trauma and moving forward. Taking charge of your life despite what happened. Like those two tenants mightve been actual people in her life that rosa depended on for support( hence needing money). Something happened that broke them apart that traumatized her, maybe they got tired of her toxic behaviour or the black cat died and the other cat couldnt cope with rosa.
I believe the couple in the second act are representations of the fur beetles and silverfish that infested the house. Not only do they have the shape of these insects but also at the end they and their family have 6 legs as if they were insects. If you look at it from a certain perspective it makes sense, they are "very interested in the house" but they just stay inside it without ever paying for it and in the process destroying it, it makes me think that they are a hallucination provoked by the poison. A materialization of Developer's fear that only the insects infesting his house are interested in it and he being left alone, full of debts and with the house completely infested. Which ends up coming true
For a more in-universe theory as to why The House is present in every short despite the different creatures, I'd say that the House is an element present on each and every universe. At some point, at some time, no matter which, this House will be built. Be it either by a maniacal rich person that might just be a bloody demon, a lonely broken rat man or a cat lady affixed with nostalgia and making the House brand new.
Hearing your interpretation of the Rosa short was an eye opener. I watched it with the impression that Rosa was the one sensible hard worker with goals and dreams while her tenants were lazy parasites. Hearing you point out that the house was a waste of energy makes me wonder if I should rethink my priorities.
It ties into the other 2 stories aswell. The first story has a line about the condition for the family moving into the new "house" was that they then can't go back to their old "home". They always refer to the new place as the house and the old one is a home. The house is all gaudy and soulless while the old home although small, was made a home because of the family itself. The parents were too obsessed with the material aspect of having a large decorated house that they neglected the most important part of what makes a house a home, namely their children. Their materialistic obsession eventually consumes them literally by turning them into furniture. If they were less obsessed when the house burned down then they would still be able to rebuild a new home so long as they had each other. Material things fade or get destroyed over time. The second story has the estate agent rat obsess so much with how the house is presented in order to sell it to a point he isolates himself from normal social interaction and to the detrement of his mental health. He made viewers of the house uncomfortable with his stunted social skills and conversation only aboug superficial stuff about how nice the house looks. He longs for a connection, hence him talking innapropriately to his dentist who is probably the only person he interacted with for any length of time while he was working, but his obsession with the house and selling it meant he pushed everyone away and had no one left to help him. The odd couple can be interpretted multiple ways but I personally saw aspects of them simply being happy acting out their most primal urges because they at least had each other but he looked down on them because of their appearance and eccentricness. After his mental breakdown at the hospital he no longer cares about the house looking a certain way and just embraces acting out his most basic needs among the other insects. The last one had the landlord care too much about this idealised vision of what she felt was a "perfect house" and refused to see beyond that, even when the house was likely going to be destroyed by the flood anyway soon. The tennants know the house is doomed but care enough about her to try help her see past it. What's the point in spending your whole life caring only about money and things you own if tomorrow it could all be lost? What will you have left? The landlord eventually realised this and just decided to leave with the others because they could always form a new home anywhere so long as they were together. She learns the lesson just in time unlike the parents in the first story who died as a result of their materalistic obsession or the rat who only gave up his obsession after a total mental breakdown completely losing his old self.
I got the same feeling while watching it at first, getting frustrated on her behalf as she was trying to get the house in order while her tenants talked about everything else. it did make for an odd shift at the end when it turned out they were actually trying to help her all along.
@@remnants9974 They were dropping hints the entire time. Rosa saying she would ‘fix the house up and get tenants back in’, to which Jen replies, ‘and overtime move everyone back out.’ To which Rosa doesn’t even reply. Hinting that yeah, you can absolutely polish your trauma up to be bearable to the rest. For a while… Over time, most are going to see that you’re a lost cause and drift away all over again.
I actually liked the small faces in the first short ., I thought it was really adorable, especially on Mabel and Isobel~ Also Mr. Thomas's voice actor was so good! Him having a breakdown was really well done, it was chilling~
Excuse me? Mabel ugly and isobel is the mastermind behind this all. That big headed bum called isobel lead mabel down to their old house hence they woke up and were trapped
I definitely liked the second story the best. He starts out with people around him (it's stated that he fired the other contractors, and we see all the people come into the house for the showing) and he gradually becomes more and more isolated, with his only company being the parasites that invited themselves in. My worst nightmare. Probably because I see parallels between that and mental illness. The illness invites itself in, and if you're not careful, gradually takes you over until you're completely and utterly alone.
I think it's important - in the third short, Jen absolutely offers emotional support but she's also providing food from her garden! It's easy to miss but important (however you interpret it) that both "tenants" (friends) are providing food for them all to survive, while Rosa isn't. I believe Jen mentions the flood taking out the garden in their meal together, which was also part of her motivation to move on and nudge Rosa to the reality of it. Your take of the second short completely changed the way I looked at it - me and my friend weren't really sure what to make of it! It fits very well, especially since his life is literally consumed by it in the last shots. I also loved the song at the end the show, which really pushes the idea that the shorts are about the difference between a 'house' and a 'home'. With a home being somewhere you don't pretend/aspire to not just be yourself, which fits with all the shorts! All stories do have an element of greed - by being possessed by the aspirations the house gives, not true to their needs. Song: th-cam.com/video/87NqpJFcYTM/w-d-xo.html 🎵🎶
Worth noting is that Rosa only wanted tenants to renovate the house - Use the rent money to renovate little by little until it's done and she doesn't need tenants. The place might have been her childhood home, hence her attachment to it, the photo of her with her parents, the 'house and home' like ya said. Glad she got happy ending. \o/
They were right about the unsettling”ness” The fact the parents act weird become furniture is over the line I used to be scared of “becoming things” but after watching spirited away I got over my fear And now my fear is back So yea
I think that the stories having different species struggling in the house symbolizes that these problems happen to so many different people with so many different backgrounds. I agree with you that the house/s symbolize their minds/ who they are.
the second part of this made me so fear-stricken that i felt physically ill and had to go outside. it was incredibly effective for me and i don't know why. i also think of them being the "same house" in the same sense that the house from The Haunting Of Hill House and The Haunting Of Bly Manor are the "same house". they aren't the same house, not really, just the same set/location on which different stories take place.
I think the idea of them being different animals is reflective of different kinds of people when it comes to materialism; the humans represent a kind of greed and desire only we humans can have, the rats represent how (even in the worst of squalor) they refuse to leave their current home/nest, and the cats represents how once there is nothing left for them they move on. Also, I'd like to point out when put together, the names of the shorts make a poem; "And heard within, a lie is spun, then lost is truth that can't be won, listen again and seek the sun".
Each part of the poem vaguely describes what happens in each part…to me the full poem means that when you have a something negative (aka lie/untruth) within you, dwelling on that alone won’t help you. You must seek outside of yourself for solutions to progress in life.
i felt like with the 2nd short it had to deal more with pests rather then mental health. the two people that live in the house have very similar design with the bugs. Like bugs, they feast and ruin everything in the house which causes the developer to go mad, but he wont stop letting bad people or "pests" into his home which COULD represent him and what its like living with people who are like that, cause as the saying goes "if you stick around different people, then you start acting like them" or sumthin
It's about immigration! (Twitter goes insane and sends CCP spies to assassinate Alondro... who just eats them to increase his power level, as he's done with the previous ones!) Soon, I shall be powerful enough to absorb 17 and 18, and achieve my perfect FINAL FORM!! (Because this isn't even his final form and he hasn't even used 0.000001% of this maximum power!) This makes as much sense as the short, lol.
Idk why but the second story was the one that freaked me out the most, mainly because the ending is something so foreign to the start and is no longer a society that we are familiar to
@@jennims2885 Yeah that 2nd one actually left me kinda nauseated and scarred in a way. Horror which does that with no onscreen deaths and no gore, is so rare and incredible.
out of all the movies you've reviewed so far, this one hit home, hard. I used to smoke weed for several reasons, however, i recently quit. The urge to return to it is still there, plaguing my mind yet every day i awake, it does lessen a tad more, yet, the reasons are still there too. Haunting me, and even my dreams. Effecting my health in ways i never knew were possible. I suffer from a nasty case of fear of hospitals and doctors, the weed helped ease it, it wasn't until recently i realised, my problems weren't going away, they was just being hidden by the weed. Since quitting it, my mind has cleared (yes, sure it still hectic as all hell but its a lot clearer than it has been in a while) and i went to the docs for the first time in a while (found lumps on my left wrist, now waiting for appointment for ultra sound), when i was waiting to see the doc, i noticed, i was a lot more calmer then i used to be when i used to go there in the past, i do wonder if its possible to not just over come my fear of docs but perhaps defeat the fear of hospitals too, with time & patience. This movie made me ask a question i havent thought of for in a while, could I finally heal mentally?.....in truth? i don't know but perhaps on this new journey, i might be able to find out, so all in all, Lord Steve, thank you. Thank You for making me remember that question and for showing me, its ok to ask for help, its ok to let go of things and people. You are awesome :) xxx
I'm surprised that for the second short you never mentioned the similarities between the features of the strange couple and their kin to the fur beetles. This connects to the idea is that after things began to slip for him (calling the cops and ending up in the hospital) the issues began to multiply and reside more permanently with him (the strangers bring him home to a larger group of the same kind of uncanny strangers). Much like an untreated infestation or untreated mental illness.
Here's an idea about why they could have been released together: Equal exposure, like when a bunch of indie bands release a demo tape together in hopes of lifting each other up. Another thing I noticed that you may have been spot-on about is the idea of past-present-future. I grew up in Seattle, where it's not unheard of to see photos of the same building on varying degrees of hill top as filler soil is dug up out of construction sites, then dumped in areas that would benefit from a more even landscape. As time passes, that filler soil isn't as compact as the natural land around it, so erosion can reveal the original hills as the less dense filler is washed away. Otherwise, I think I liked the aesthetic of the second film the best, the third would be middle for me, and the first, last. They're all very well done in their own rights, but I'm absolutely enamored at the fact I can see aspects of pet rats I've come to know in the faces and mannerisms of the second animation. What if they were intended to be chronologically ordered, and man to rat is a nod to Mice & Men? Then, naturally, cats would rule over rats/mice, and potentially wipe them out, or at least relegate them to a lower class?
I sent a request for this one! Glad it was heard. I personally loved it, as soon as the first short ended and I realised there would be multiple stories I did just start treating them as separate. I agree with a lot of your analysis. I think one interesting tidbit I had the from second short is that only at the end, where you see the developer in his primal state, do you realise they were ALL always vermin. But because we're used to anthromorphised characters we take the mice as 'people' and the bugs as the 'alien' beings.
I feel that all three stories were all from the same universe, that the 'mouse' and 'cat' looks of the other stories were just abstract ways of presenting the characters to assist in delivering the message. The house being on a hill in the first story but in a city the next just shows the passage of time, rather than the house itself morphing. It was pretty common a long time ago for houses to be moved a bit while leveling areas to have more even ground to make it easier to build there.
I really loved this movie and I love analyzing them! For my own take, I think the house represents the insecurities of all of the characters, their pasts and a reflection of themselves. Growing up with parents that would neglect you, the house turning from a pace of safety into a giant wooden prison and their parents sinking into their own misery until they push their children away to save them. They had to burn the house and keep moving forward to save themselves. The mouse man thought that the house was all he needed, that one thing and he would be perfect, but his dark desires and bits of vitriol in himself find their way into his vision, the bugs take over the house and eventually he falls into his pit of despair and departs from the world scarred by the parts of himself he didn’t want to acknowledge. The cat’s house is her sanctuary but also her prison, she’s too scared to leave her home but not strong enough to fix it alone. She has friends that stick it out for as long as they can but eventually they have to put themselves first, urging her to follow them and see that the world is more than a shroud of mists, that one house isn’t her entire being and opening up and moving on from the past is okay, because part of it will always be with you.
I think the cat lady was actually in a coma, nothing makes sense to her and the ones with her aren't giving her anything she can use. They keep talking and giving emotional support but in the end, only that lever she managed to push which was most likely a twitch of her finger, gave her and her friends hope again. The mist is probably a sign of her acknowledging the cloudiness of her own actions and those around her, where she starts realizing she's in a coma.
Honestly I saw it as parallel universes, with the house existing in different dimensions in a sense, with the house being the one consistent thing between the parallels
I think the Developer trying to sell his house is a metaphor for him trying to find companionship. He makes the house as polished as possible to try to impress others so he can get a sale which represents him trying to impress others to gain companionship. He’s so desperate for companionship in fact, that he even constantly calls his dentist and refers to him as “darling” which naturally weirds the dentist out.
But I don’t know why he was calling his dentist. Did he have a toothache, root canal, abscess, or cavity that needed to be fixed? No. Also the developer was preventing the dentist from curing his patients, which is very dangerous. Deterring a doctor or nurse from curing patients is very dangerous, and it can even be fatal. There were patients that needed their teeth fixed by his dentist urgently. They could have died.
I saw this as soon as it had been released onto Netflix and I have absolutely been hypnotized by these strange yet elegant stories, I hope to see more beautiful art like this.
Alright, Let's try this again: I recommend 'The King Of Pigs'. It's a korean animation movie about two childhood friends who meet one night to revisit the school they went to as kids where they faced severe bullying and experienced a traumatic event that still haunts them in their adulthood. Fair Warning: Bullying, Abuse, Depression, Violence, Death and animal violence
I saw the movie when it came out thanks to the "coming soon" section. I prefered them from the first to last but only the first's theme was clear to me. The order is still the same in my heart after your video but it helped me finally under the two later shorts and for that you have all my thanks. Also I wanna point your videos are as entertaining as ever! As long as you enjoy your work, I hope to keep seeing more of your stuff ^^
I think the third story represents people that hate their lives and can break free but feel too scared to take a chance, change their lives and seek out new chances and they end up trapped in stagnation repeating the same medial tasks in the hope of getting ahead even though what they’re trying clearly isn’t working but they keep on doing it because as everyone knows change is scary and the fear of taking a risk with something new is able to keep her struggling and circling in the same helpless tasks as what little she has, (like her friends) begin to fall slip away. It also kind reminds me of a metaphor for life, death and heaven. She fears death (the fog) and she struggles to keep on living, (remain on the island maintaining her home) and her friends begin to sail away, (die) and she can hear them calling from the other side to join them but she’s scared, but when she finally lets go (allows herself to die) she’s reunited with her friends in a beautiful wondrous place beyond the fog, (heaven).
The third story really spoke to me about appreciating not only the small things but appreciating things when they are there and not gone. How the guests present her with the exact things she needs to survive - being surrounded by a flood - with food, companionship & positive mental feeling but Rosa still seeks monetary gain. Maybe also a play that money alone won't make you happy especially that we see that as the guests begin to leave Rosa starts to feel the impact and realizes what's really important. The lever is that symbol of a choice we all have and in that moment it's up to you to either pull it or not.
I love this film so much it is presented well with a main story overall and within each but its vague enough so that you can really just put any meaning onto the film and i love it for that.
I’m not sure about the second short, but when the developer is calling his “lover” I thought that it’s possible he actually did have a lover. But- when he started using more and more pesticide, he actually causes himself hallucinations and accidentally calling his dentist or his “darling” broke up with him and he couldn’t accept it and had these fantasies with his dentist. Also I a lot of people believe the unwanted guest are more insect like, but I believe the developer is a mouse and the unwanted guest are more like rats rather than insects.
After unknowingly going in and out of depression for years, the third short makes me think of the realization i had after months of therapy. I had spent years trying to "just be better" because i could tell something was wrong, but I didn't really know what. What I experienced were the symptoms, so those were what I tried to work on. insomnia? go to bed earlier. Sad? smile more around others so they won't know. Go out less to rest more, talk to others less to rest more, stop making art to rest more, stop playing games to rest more, stop watching movies because who cares. stop doing anything but work because nothing matters anyway, just remember to smile!! I thought if i just fixed myself somehow, things would work out, and i would be happy, somehow. Just like the character seems to think if she just fixes up the house, people will come to live in it (somehow) and everything will work out. But the longer I tried to tough it out and "fix" myself, the more friends i lost, the more i isolated myself, and the depressed i actually got. The way her friends try to offer her what she needs, instead of what she wants, and the way she gets frustrated because she believes what she wants is what she needs, all make sense. I know I must have brushed off a lot of good advice gently if not cautiously offered my way as well when I didn't even know i was suffering from depression. Be it upbringing or social context, I was convinced i knew what i had to do or was supposed to do to fix it, so being told "maybe this would help instead" was frustrating at the time. To me, sailing off with the house and with her friends looks like she's moving forward, not moving on. She can work on fixing her house along the way, with the help of her friends, and meet new people, and finally get more friends in her house again down the line. I think the friend of a friend could be a psychologist or therapist who gave her the tools to start opening up, represented by the lever. A therapist can give you tools, but they can't fix your problems for you. Starting therapy was scary for me, so was starting anti-depressants for some reason. I had an emotional blockage where i just. didn't. want to. It felt like taking them would be giving up, but giving up on what? Nothing brought me joy anymore... There was already nothing left to lose. Once I overcame that, things started to untangle and get better. The medication helped, therapy helped. Living stopped being painful, which I didn't even realize it was while i was hurting. I was just that used to it. If you read all this, and you think you might need some help emotionally, please talk to your loved ones, or your doctor, or call a help line. Because I can tell you from experience: toughing it out for 10 f*king years is NOT worth it!!! You don't deserve to suffer. Take care of yourselves
I interpreter Rosa's story more about following a dream/goal and how sometimes, said goal consumes you. We see that Rosa big desire is to fix the house, but this goal is keeping her away of enjoying other aspects of life, like hang out with the people around her, being this dream to consuming and becoming even an obsession or a need. At the end, when she moves with her house, I see it like her dream is still with her, but now is not stopping her to enjoy life, and is more as a companion now.
I noticed when I watched the first short, that was literally all of my childhood nightmares combined: - Moving out of a familiar surrounding -Said familiar surrounding being destroyed -awkward conversations with a stranger -Parents ignoring me (more in a sense of them being brainwashed or mind-addled into forgetting my existence) -People destroying the things I felt sentimental about -Fire -Parents dying because they didn't listen to me I grew up with films like the Nutcracker and Coraline so it could explain a few. Sometimes I still get nightmares about these things. I also would have bad dreams about things like my parents being replaced or stolen
I'm getting a kick out of the use of felted characters in these stop motion animations. Felting is my current favorite hobby and it's cool seeing it used in something other than just the creation of fiber sculptures and flat pictures. It's a really fun and relaxing hobby. Can get kind of expensive, but there are ways to keep the cost down.
Seens cool, I kinda do something similar but with 3d modeling, if you exclude the computer is very cheap as you can do very beatifull characters just with free software. Edit: Netflix did a chistmas movie imitating this tipe of stop motion.
When each of the shorts is described I thought about how each kinda uses a different style of horror/thriller. First one: based solely on Steve’s Description it sounded very much Ike a combination of old silent film horror mixed with Edgar Allen Poe if that makes sense Second one: more like the psychological thrillers of the modern age in which case the scary part isn’t totally the physical things. Kinda put me to mind a little of the Fly with what the Developers deterioration over time. Third one: oh yeah here we go my cup of tea of the three. This one kinda reminds me of an old Twilight zone episode. In the same way how everyone’s urging her to leave and move on, it put me to mind of the episode The Passersby Just some random thoughts. Nice review mate
the cat chapter really reminds me of Spirtfarer (the game) its where you take Charon's place and ferry people to the 'everdoor'/entrance to the after life after fulfilling their last requests. Your boat is essentially a giant 'house boat' where you make these cute little rooms/houses specific to each spirit you're ferrying.
I loved this! THough I think something missed from the first episode is how the wallpaper are literal eyeballs staring at the family, judging their every move, always watching.
I just assumed the bugs disguised themselves as the strange tenants or essentially just became the strange tenants, leaving their buggy shells to become more human in behavior as we see in the musical sequence with the bugs doing certain things that would mainly be seen in a circus
Just a little detail I noticed, in the second short the main character uses a phone with a three lens camera. The first phone to ever implement that was in 2018. Enjoy your vids 🙂👍Well done sir
i feel like the first short also has a distinctly Fae touch to it. the whisking away of the family to a new, strange place, the presentation of food without any explanation of where it came from, etc. also with the food thing, we only see the parents eating the food presented at the house and theyre the ones that ultimately succumb, which was an interesting thing i noticed pretty quickly on during my first watch-through lolol.
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Bro, I loved this movie, thanks for making this content 👍
ok
I have to say the mouse short was the weakest of the two, but the cat one is my favorite for how hopeful it is. The one about the poor family is good to watch to get a good horror vibe, which this short did a very good job.
I’m running out of ways to say this review the long long holiday, please?
love the video! i disagree with your conclusion, though. i think the stories connect well thematically, even though the narrative connections are weak. If all 3 titles are are put together you get: "And heard together a lie is spun. Then lost is truth that can't be won. Listen again and seek the sun"
i think the whole story is about anit-materialism. the family in the first story are happy, but give into the lie that the lavish house will solve their problem. the developper in the second story keeps perpetuating the lie because the believes that selling the house for a profit will solve all his problems and even when it's clear the house is a lost cause he cannot let go of it and chooses to waste away inside of it. then Rosa encounters the same problem, where she's trying to hang on to the house and restore it to it's former glory, but she is able to break away from the cycle finally and "seek the sun". the house was never a solution to anyone's problem, but when it was partially destroyed and made into a boat it was finally able to make someone happy
also, i think Rosa was trying to restore the house to the way it was whe she lived there with her parents, basically trying to "rebuild" a happier time in her life without recognising that that's an impossible task
I felt like the third story had at least a small theme of trauma and living with it. Rosa is obsessed with the house, wanting to renovate it and fix it all up (particularly by wallpapering it with pretty patterns, but the wallpaper keeps falling down), but her tenants/friends tell her that she can't stay. They tell her "You can't stay here," "You have to move on," and most importantly, "Don't be afraid." They've stuck around as long as they could, but it's been such a long time and Rosa is afraid to move forward. But she clearly wants to, as she looks up at the house and tells it "Please let me go. I want to leave."
And despite Cosmos saying she can leave the property, that doesn't actually happen. The lever allows the house to detach from the land, but it's still with Rosa. She just commandeers it now, drifting out to meet her friends. The house/her trauma and past will always be with her, but she's able to control the house now.
It's not a perfect analogy and obviously that's not the only take-away, but that was my own personal interpretation.
I agree, great analysis!
I thought something like that too
I thought something like that too, it was the only part of it I liked
I think that sums it up really well.
Rosa was probably my favourite character in the movie
The lesson of the second story: Just because they stick their hands in your mouth doesn't mean your dentist sees you in that way...
Actually I think the majority of the second short film was a hallucinated fever dream of a dying man from inhaling too much of the poison the developer was using to exterminate the furbeatles and the slow cult like clapping of the relatives of the odd couple was actually a metaphor for the poor developer's heart slowly counting down to it's last beat before it finally stops and kills the man finally ending his own hallucinated personal hell
@@alexconn7473 I'm fairly certain he was just making a joke.
@@terrafletcher1930 I actually did get that but I was just stating what I think was happening in short
@@alexconn7473 ok thats extremely dark given that context
Lol I like the way you think
I feel like all three shorts have a theme of control, mostly loss of control. The family loses control of their greed and autonomy, the developer loses control of his well being and property, the bug like rats probably showing just how bad everything has gotten due to him ignoring the issue, and Rosa feels that she's losing control of the house and herself, but unlike the others, Rosa is able to take control of the house with some help and adapt to the situation.
Ooh I like this interpretation! In each short the people try to bend the house to their will and it winds up making their life harder, but with the help of her friends Rosa lets go of her need to control and that seems to break the control of the house!
@@elimidd6626 Rosa seems to be the only one with a happy ending.
@@sugarcandykiddycat1986 same, the other two shorts were disturbing 😳
@@sugarcandykiddycat1986 yeah the third one was my favorite
I also thought there was something in the fact that Mabel tries to retain parts of her peaceful life in the old house, but the comforts she's used to keep getting removed by the construction workers or burnt on the fire. Her parents are too blindsided by the promise of wealth and prestige (that a child would likely not care so much about) that they don't consider how their decision is harming their children until it's far too late.
Tbh I actually prefer the movie having a three-part-structure rather than being broken up into shorts because watching the third story and its happy ending after the last two being depressing is really effective
Yesss the last part really gave you a sense of hope
It really ended on a good note. I watched this late at night and was already emotionally drained. The finale was comforting and the aesthetic less jarring.
The second part was just slow
Agreed.
totally! i was definitely confused the first time i watched it but after that i loved it. it first part was sad but relieving, second was disturbing and bittersweet, last was calm and hopeful. after the thrid story i took a deep breath of fuuuuuuuuuuucking hell bro
One small consistency I noticed was Mabel's mother's sewing machine in the trash outside the house in the second film.
Yes I noticed this too was wondering who else saw it!
Late in replying but Mabel's dolls also look like the elderly rats.
I was about to say that
Does that mean Penelope and Raymond roam the house as ghosts?
do u know what time frame?
Im not going to lie that is EXACTLY how it feels like to run into random construction workers when youre a kid.
Real
As someone who used to work construction, we don't want to be yelled at by their parents for talking to their kid
@@bnbcraft6666The fact you dont deny you stare at little kids with morderous intent when they talk to you, its awesome
@@luisnache9688 furniture ain't cheap
It’s actually against the law for construction workers to have any interaction with random minors.
I feel it’s very important to note that the strange couple in the second story looks very familiar to the fur beetle and the fur beetle larvae(correct me if I’m wrong). It alludes more to the fact that the developer is going insane.
The developer also comes “home” wearing the hospital gown, which suggests he wasn’t discharged, but may have gone home on his own accord.
It honestly makes you wonder, were they even real? Personally, I don't think so. I think they were just manifestations of his own fear of poverty, the infestation destroying the house, and his own mind breaking down.
Going "home" in the hospital gown could just as easily represent the fact that nothing is really fixed or better.
I dont know why he didnt point this out, it was so obvious. Even how elongated some of the couples were
I was so scared but also so fucking confused. I knew they were supposed to be the bugs just completely dumbfounded.
I called it as soon as they came on screen that they were basically insects disguised as rats. I thought they represented the danger of chasing other people's validation (similar to the first story) and overlooking red flags, because it attracts "parasites" who will take advantage of your insecurities.
For the second story if it's truly is about mental health, then the part where the developer research is the fur beetles and is then told how expensive they are to get rid of is a realistic depiction of how many people that identify their own mental health issues just cannot meet the financial hurdles of tackling them.
American moment
I still don't like how the developer claims to the police that he's innocent when he literally just admitted that he sexually harasses his dentist
@@williampulfer-melville8536 True, but the police also don't pay any attention to the developer's failing mental health
Also the second part of the story is not only mental health but also putting pressure onto yourself in working on something as we try to get things done by the deadline or we need to get things done as soon as possible but sometimes we let stress and are problems kick in as it was clear the developer put the pressure onto himself and used his dentist as a way of talking about his problems also showing not to have a friend or someone in the family to help him shows he trying to fix the problems without realizing his own problems
Here's my take on that
Maybe it's about stalking and harassment and point of hypocrisy
Especially about acting better than others when you're clearly no better than them or so I think
Something else about the green- I don't know when exactly this is supposed to take place, but green pigments once used arsenic to achieve their color. This was particularly true for wallpapers, which would often become moldy and release arsenic into the air of tightly sealed homes. I think that the green could also be a visual indicator for the gradual poisoning of the family.
If I remember correctly, the use of arsenic for green pigments was around the victorian era. Green was a very popular colour back then, it was the ideal colour for houses. Other colours like red makes the house give of an angry and feral vibe. I remember getting all of this in a documentary on youtube about the dangerous things that were used in the Victiorian and Edwardian era. It was 2 year ago so I can’t be sure if I’m accurate with the facts here.
@@Aku_Karya We might have watched the same documentary! I'm forgetting what exactly it's called, but there's a whole series on loads of dangerous things from various time periods in British (maybe just English?) history.
@@eliseosterbrink8000 i tried searching up the documentary, it was from a channel called Absalute History.
Green is also often symbolized for money and for greed plus materialism and it was a prevalent color in all the shorts (I don’t remember which major detail for short 2 bc it’s been awhile) but the wallpapers of Rosa and the family’s furniture are all green
yes!! green also serves to represent toxicity or sickness, green being on the curtains and covering the mother could of been signs of her overworking, and perhaps the father's alcoholism from overconsumption.
I feel like the dolls in the first part are actually very expressive despite their small facial features- the changes in their expressions can be subtle at times but the eyebrows on them are very lively at least. Makes them look kind of more natural even.
The way they move is also rather expressive
And blushing 😊
The last short actually gave me a bit of a feeling that she needed to get over some grief, and that her friends moved on, trying to take her with them. She's so caught up in herself and her grief that she focuses on keeping everything the same. She doesn't want it to change, but she wants it to go back to how it used to be.
Yeah and the house sailing away is her breaking from the grief that was the foundation of her life for a while because she realized that what she lost was already gone but that she could move on and be with the people who care about her in the present
For sure, this was my take as well. I keep hearing people say that she was obsessed with money, but I think the only thing she really wanted was to retain her normalcy and pretend things weren't falling apart around her- hence why she expected rent even though with her house as it is (in a location that is going to get inevitably flooded) and no plans to get off it, there was frankly no use for it she could've had. Especially not if she stayed there and was gonna invest it into a house doomed by it's location not to find any other tenants. So yeah, to me it's also about grief, and I don't mind other interpretations but I still do feel that saying she was obsessed with money is a stretch :/
Hey Steve, not sure if you'll see this but I highly recommend "The World of David the Gnome". I have a feeling it's right up your alley. Especially the final episode.
That episode was a true Tearjerker for a Nick Jr show. Like dear lord
@Sun Tzu If you count the 2 main characters and 1 side character dying in a kid show. Yes
@Sun Tzu The last episode wasn't bad at all. Far from it. It's just a major tearjerker.
Oh dear, that show was so huge in Spanish speaking countries. I didn't watch it as a kid but it's definitely lovely
@Sun Tzu Well according to the shows lore. Gnomes can only live be 400, and David, Lisa, and Jasper are both 399. They prepare on a quest to a mountain and say goodbye to all their animal friends, including swift the fox. They then get the mountain and say their final goodbyes as they turn into trees.
The original occupants are Humans.
The second occupants are Rats.
And the Last occupants are Cats.
It’s the humans who have a rat problem and buy a cat to solve it.
Omg I was wondering what it could mean! Bc first it's humans, then rats (which are considered pests by many humans) & then it's cats, who eat rats.
I also thought of it as First humans, then as the world becomes more populated and congested, more vermin become present (i.e. rats), and last regarding the flood in the third one, cats are usually the ones to survive natural disasters like floods and hurricanes etc over other animals.
Wowwwww
Personally, I felt like the second story was about the danger of chasing other people's validation.
The rat invested his "whole life" into the house, but he puts emphasis on tacky, surface-level glamour rather than stability. He's also very uncomfortable around people and has no real relationships whatsoever. If the house is symbolic of his image/mental health, the bugs could represent suppressed loneliness, or other problems beneath the surface which he ignores. They're not always visible, but they're deep in the foundations. Plus this all happens during a _recession_ which would add plenty of stress to his problems.
The insect-rats appear at the _exact_ right moment, while he's desperately searching for a buyer (approval.) They also don't speak until he's disoriented because of the flashing lights. Despite the MANY red flags, the rat ignores obvious problems _again_ because they're "very interested in the house", and gives them everything they want until they've already established a presence. They're parasites who take advantage of the flaws in the house (the rat's insecurities.)
Relationships are important in all three parts of the anthology, but here I think it's about the danger of _bad_ ones. In the end the rat goes "home" to the insects because they're the only relationship he has left. Once they drag him down to their level, there's a neat little detail where he scratches the headset off - he cuts himself off from outside. Meanwhile the house is in shambles. To me, this story resonated as a warning about how much loneliness or unhealthy, predatory relationships can destroy a person, and are no substitute for real self-worth.
I think this is a pretty good interpretation of that story. The bugs being insecurities makes a lot of sense and if you add to that Steve's interpretation then it makes even more sense. Studies have shown that insecurities and mental illness are usually connected, were the more a person is insecure the more likely are they to subs abuse. Which in the context of the story makes a lot of sense. Especially when you consider the fact that the rat only starts using the poison when he see's the bugs
There is another lttle detail i caught. Tere are two kinds of bugs, the larva and the beetle. And the ressemble the Rats, one os white and long-stretched and the other, dark and short. Perhaps it's showing how the issue was slowly growing without the developer realisng.
Maybe the main character obsessing over the dentist might be him trying to force himself into someone else’s life. And then his advances are rejected.
@@cubonefan3 I don’t think he even knew he was phoning his dentist. Who on earth would send hotel ideas to a dentist? Why on earth would anyone ask a dentist to say a little prayer or call them pet names? He was also tying up the phone line which can put other patients at risk. The developer should have been living in a prison.
7:13 That is the most resilient baby I have ever seen,I'm also surprised he didn't analyze the mother still saving her children even after becoming furniture
Bonk
I feel as though the third short might also have a message about moving on, and growing up, as shown by Rosa breaking down as her friend sail away, perhaps being a metaphor for them moving on and letting go of the past. While Rosa however refuses to let go and is transfixed on the idea of renovating the house. However with the help of her friends, Rosa finally pulls the lever, a symbol of her finally excepting what she must do (The fact that Cosmos has to build the lever out of the house she cares about so much might also link to something). Very well presented video as always, great work Steve!
I thought the same thing. More along the terms of moving on and letting go of fear.
@@Missqueenfairy I was thinking more about grief. Since Rosa had a photo of her family, I took it to represent an attachment to what she felt was an ideal life that may have 'died' with her parents/ with her losing them
@@fishfingas119 That's what I was thinking the whole time, even in the duration of the video lol.
I found the second story to be funny on account of the characters being rats. A pest animal living akin to a human, having to struggle with bugs, another parasitic entity, now that's funny. I interpreted this short to have been an allegory for the falsehood of self-image. Our guy is pretending desperately to be something that he isn't and gets involved with the wrong crowd who reveal to him his darker side. Or maybe the story was on the concept of inevitable self-destruction and self harm, physical and mental. I think it ties with third story because Rosa does break away and becomes someone better, while the developer further indulges in his bad habits.
I'm not sure what was meant to be shocking about the developer the reveal that the developer is gay or the fact that he had been sexually harassing his dentist
@@williampulfer-melville8536 His sexual orientation is debatable, but also not really the point here. And I don't think that was the take away of the story. Shocking would be how easily he went mad and feral.
@@williampulfer-melville8536 But I can understand why it wouldn't seem necessarily shocking.
@@kimeraclan3135 indeed plus maybe the fact he sexually harassed his dentist may have had something to do with him as you said he has some kind of mental issues maybe he only refers to his dentist as darling as a way of coping that he is actually sad and alone
Not to mention the setting! If this is really a post 2008 recession, wouldnt that stress make you wanna go back to monkey? Loosing your life, your sanity over imaginary money and the like. Also i'm not an economist but if I understand correctly, the recession was caused by making and selling mortages that looked good on the outside but where actually worthless? Idk please correct me
One other easter egg that connects the stories ist the fact that the house, in the second short, is located in a road named after the architect of the house in t first short. It's called Van Schoonbeek lane.
Also you can see the mothers sowing machine in the orange bags outside.
And one of the families that comes to look at that house has a daughter named Isobel.
also when Rosa is first messing with the planks you can see a furbug
and the little girl in the first short is playing with a small rat doll and a small cat doll ( the main characters of the next two shorts)
I definitely like the second story the most. It’s definitely a story about mental illness to me and the “infestation” turning into a bigger and worse problem represents him failing to cope or treat his illness and letting it take over after trying to conceal it.
This story was very creepy and the imagery was horrifying. I love it! 9/10
I adore the second one and the way he explained it in this video is perfect
Yup. The rat keeps putting band aid "fixes" but the issues run deep; they're foundational. The cheap fixes he makes are akin to unhealthy coping mechanisms, like retail therapy, substances, etc. The more he tries to ignore the problem, the bigger it gets, until he suffers a complete mental collapse.
I also find it smart that they made him a rat, often seen as vermin themselves, who himself is trying to rid the house of vermin.
oh my god the second story infuriated me the audacity of those fucking rodents
I don’t understand why he constantly called his dentist. Was it because he had an Indian accent, last name Jafri, and the developer admired it?
i always assumed that the moral of the story, shared by all three vignettes, is that it is people, not a building, that makes a home. because in all three stories, the house is still in the process of being made into a home: mabel and her parents are perpetually moving in, the developer is repairing it to sell, and rosa is attempting to repair it. in all three cases, the house remains unfinished, and the people who live in it slowly become obsessed, thereby ignoring the “home” they already had with other people. consider:
mabel’s parents, who feel dissatisfied with their worldly possessions and the scorn they bring them from those who have more, fall in love with the houses furnishings such that they become them. they allow themselves to become furniture in the architect’s dollhouse while their daughters become neglected and are eventually chased out. meanwhile, their parents who gave the house their soul, are punished and burned.
the developer already has no one. he projects his loneliness confusedly on his dentist, likely reliving the intrapersonal trauma which forced him to throw everything he had into the house. again, here is a character the house punishes: he drives himself insane trying to make the house perfect, to give it meaning, but it’s meaningless, material nature is thrown back into his face in the end. it and he are destroyed by bugs.
finally, rosa. rosa already understands that the stability the house provides in the flood is waning, but she denies it. she pours what little material she has into the house so that she can be safe and “home” within its walls. but this almost costs her the home she already has with her friends. she is almost punished in the same way as those who came before her. but she isn’t, because she realizes what they did not: a home is not a structure. it is not a refuge, or some infallible thing which one can last and provide safety forever because nothing is, nothing works that way. rather, the only “home” one can have are the bonds they have with others, and once she accepts that, and gives herself over to the unknown with the people she loves, then she’s freed.
i think the film is a bit of a memento mori, but a kind one. it redefines the natural urge we feel towards “home” by taking the most familiar icon of the concept-a house-and making it strange, unfamiliar, and frightening. thus we see, home is not the building, but the people inside it.
I think the house itself is a memento mori. I noticed that the house exists in the past, present, and future, with various inhabitants and their fleeting concerns and worries.
I think the house in the first story is the same in the third story,because both are on a hill,the house was rebuilt after it burnt down
this is pretty damn brilliant and i don’t know how i or steve reviewing it didn’t catch that. i think u are most likely right on the nose
Although I agree that the first short is the best one, the last short is actually my favorite. Even though it doesn’t have the horror feel like the first two, I felt the characters in the last one were the most relatable and the story itself was uplifting and it could make a good series based off of that one
I agree ☺️
I agree I loved the last one so much I was gonna change off the movie after the second part because I didn't like it
Same. I felt good about the last one.
Yeah I 100% agree!
I feel the same way. The first one has a great horror feel to it. But the last one hits differently in the best way 😊💕!
I found it quite interesting and haunting. The movie is called "The House", right? So it is suppose to represent that it is indeed the same house in all 3 shorts, yet each one of them is ruled by other creatures, and each receiving different fate both for them and the house. Is that symbolising something between all of them or the house itself? Are the events happening in different times? Maybe in parallel universes? It really makes you think. And not to mention really dark.
Yeah. Each short had an even deeper meaning to me. I used to help my dad with rental houses as a kid. Then he was given a house by his late father recently. It was a hoarder house. We rennovated it and still are. Its been 6 years in the works and the last song in this film really hit home. "This house is... I don't know what it is.....What is a house more than a collection of bricks?" These are the main thoughts we all had when we got it. And as the lyrics go, you can hear the evolving perspective and thoughts we've had on this journey.
We saved the house for the the family sentimentality. It drove a wedge in between some family. And the more we do, the more exhausting it is and more just needs to be fixed. In the end, even though it means a lot to my dad. He came to the same conclusion. And about a year ago he said, "Ya know, it's just a house. The memories here have come and gone. It could create more, but they'll probably be more negative from here on out. If you think about it, it's really just an organized pile of sticks and bricks." He's decided to sell it. And everyone is happy with that decision.
@@Ian-np6zt So I see that this movie really speaks for you. Very interesting.
It's also worth noting that the husband of the odd couple in the second story has had his lines recorded last year as the guy that did his voice actually passed away last year
@@williampulfer-melville8536 Damn… 😨
@@baryardeni9731 yeah
I saw my Mom watching this and the first thing I thought was this is something Steve Reviews would review
And wouldn’t you know,
Lawd, I saw my mom watch this too haha
Green was also a deadly color back in that time period because they used arsenic, which slowly suffocated the victim.
That could be a good analysis for short 1. The rich man gives properties painted with arsenic to poor people in exchange for their home, knowing that the poorer people will die, and he will end up with another property, while losing very little.
Not humans in the first short! Dolls! It's a dolls' house! That's why dolls, mice and cats live in it, it's supposed to be small! :)
Watching the third part, I got the wrong end of the stick and misinterpreted it (probably) - I saw Rosa as recognising there were things she cannot control (the flood) and focussing on things she could (the house), not able to confront the flood and move on like everyone else. It gave me such a strong sense of anxiety, and when the flood had reached her house and she was out of options, aside from a kill switch that she was informed would 'help her leave', I assumed it was a suicide lever and foolishly spent the last few minutes crying my eyes out because OF COURSE she would run out of options and kill herself. Then when I actually WATCHED was happening I was like Ah! Her friends have helped her! The third short was by far the most emotionally charged and horrifying for me, purely because I assumed it was a build up to her suicide. Really misinterpreted it!
ohhh my gosh no i think ur right. that makes so much sense that they’d be dolls
I like the second story the most. To me, the main theme is pests. The 'people' of this world are mice/rats, considered a pest animal, and the main is dealing with pests. But it's not just him dealing with them, he is BEING a pest towards his dentist because he has no friends, probably because of his unpleasant and clingy personality. He seems to get more desperate in his phonecalls, won't listen to the guy on the other end telling him to stop calling him pet names, hanging up on him, etc. It parallels with the two mice who won't leave the house no matter how much the developer asks, he's more or less getting a taste of his own medicine, and when the police come to take care of his pest like behavior, he acts completely oblivious to the fact that what he was doing was wrong, and he follows this up by accidentally poisoning himself and reducing himself to a feral pest that also aids in destroying the house, being his own undoing and with his last connection severed, he has no one but the other pests around him.
It’s my favorite, too. I love Kafkian characters where the main protagonist, for no good reason othen than the author’s pure sadism, gets into unlucky and strange situations they have no way to survive.
I don't like the second short, but I do like your take on it! It's very cool & it makes a lot of sense!
It might just be me, but the odd couple in the second short actually look like a beetle (the short, stout one) and a larva (the elongated one) to me, which would actually present an interesting connection between the developer trying to get rid of one kind of pest while another one is moving into the house
@@paterhbrater932 that is definitely what they were going for, 100% intentional
I think you could go a bit farther with the metaphor. Continuing the pest idea, they bear such a resemblance because that's how people, in general, view people struggling with active addiction; i.e. as a waste of efforts and resources and undeserving of any attention beyond what it takes to get rid of them, despite the fact that most aren't bad people at heart, just incredibly ill. Problem is, treating people like rats for years on end becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, of sorts. Addiction will break you down until you're essentially just living on "animal instinct" and doing things you would never consider doing when sober. You're not "living" at that point, but merely surviving from day to day. The substance(s) take over your life and *everything* you do is in the sole instance of getting that next high, day in and day out.
The real horror, however, is that nobody has to live that way. Given the correct support and resources, people can, and do, recover. Back in January, I had my 10 year anniversary of being in recovery. But I'm painfully aware of how easily I could have gone down a different road and ended up in prison or even dead. I'm lucky enough to have a supportive family that was able to get me into one of best programs in the country. Despite popular belief, most people can't "just stop" and there are millions of people on wait lists. And even the programs that exist are, many times, woefully ineffective because you're being discharged before the brain can do any significant healing.
I remember seeing this on Netflix and though it was gonna be a Dark humor stop motion film, and boy was I wrong. The scene that really fucked me up was the part where the mice just ate the house, I couldn't sleep for days.
You better avoid the H.P Lovecraft short story “the rats in the walls“ then
0:00 Part 1 And heard within. a lie is spun
12:16 Part 2 Then lost is truth that can't be won
20:00 Part 3 Listen again and seek the sun
What do they both mean?
The first short was definitely my favorite too. It kind of reminded me of Coraline in a way, not just because of the stop motion, but because it felt like a dark fairy tale that would have absolutely terrified me as a kid. The way it’s presented with Mabel as the point of view character for most of it really heightens the horror for me, with the lack of control she has over the situation and the way most of the adults are totally useless.
Here's my interpretation on why the second and third shorts are centered around anthropomorphic animals rather than humans.
I believe your interpretations of the messages are spot on. Yes, I think the second short revolves around mental illness and not getting the help that you need, and the third short is meant to represent a person who is close-minded to moving on. But what I realize is that the creatures used to present these characters are actually motifs to represent their issues.
Having the developer be a rat is meant to symbolize how mentally ill people are viewed. A rat is viewed as something disgusting, something that spreads filth and disease, and something that should be an outcast, even if it is incredibly intelligent. This is how some people treat the mentally ill: like nuisances that are less human than everyone else.
The rats that turn into fur beetles can also represent things like anxiety, depression, or possibly even trauma. Sometimes, these things creep around in our minds, and no matter what we do to get rid of them (therapy, meds, etc.), it seems like they just keep popping up out of nowhere, and they will never go away. That's kind of what infestations do. Not only are infestations the things that lurk around in the cracks, where we can't see them, but they are also unwanted guests that stick around through and through.
Having Rosa being a cat and having her house in the middle of a flood can be seen as a metaphor for how it seems as though she is stuck in her old ways. Most cats are terrified of water and refuse to swim. This is meant to show how she doesn't just refuse to change. It's almost like she can't. Like it's too scary for her. Also, the lever turning the house into a boat is meant to portray the idea that there are ways to change, and that it isn't as scary as it seems.
Yeah I picked up on the rat thing too. I can see why it would be confusing initially tho. But the way I see it, the reason the developer was a rat was to represent how others saw him. A vile, lowdown creature unworthy of attention. That’s why he latched onto the dentist, and why he let the insects walk all over him. I think his mental illness manifested itself in a way where he sought acceptance in a world that rejected him and looked down on him. Which can be how some people with mental illness can perceive the outside world. And that can be how some people treat others that have mental health issues. A pest. A burden.
Another thing to note is the different directors present. Perhaps that another reason why one short uses humans and the other two use animals.
That makes sense.
it's one big psychological film to me. each short deals with different concepts that i will list here
short I - societal expectations
short II - mental health
short III - emotional attachment
but that's my take on it.
I like this idea, but I think the stories focus on more sociological concepts than psychological, though there’s definitely a lot of both.
Short I- societal expectations
Short II- societal stigma of mental health
Short III- the importance of community.
Short I and II show how the structure of society forces us to value certain things like saving face and wealth, that can put your body and mind at risk in the process. Short III however has a more positive take on things and stresses the importance of having people around you and not isolating yourself.
The last one, I thought they were dying and passing on to the next life, but your interpretation fits it way better!
Oh yeah same here the vibe I got after The black cat died was feeling u get after someone u cared about commited suicide but that version fits way better
I actually agree. The whole thing felt like they were moving from limbo into Heaven at parts.
I thought same thing as well
The short has multiple parallels to the movie The Others, which (spoiler) has that ending--the fog was the biggest clue for me.
@@MasterBuilderDragon honestly, I am not a fan of that theory, as I am not a fan of those "the chatacters were all actually already dead" interpretations of movies in general. Just because in a movie/series a character says the phrase "move on" it doesn't mean that they have to realize they're dead and must go to heaven or something
I personally feel like the second story is one of someone suffering with mental health issues. I personally struggle a lot with them, given I can't afford meds, and can recognize a few unnerving similarities.
The first thing that usually comes before I know I'm about to hit a stark down turn is the intrusive thoughts. They pop up abruptly, as a little thought, usually of self harm. As soon as you find the first thought, a thousand more come up, and more and more and more until it's a tide of crawling biting thoughts, ideas, and memories. The movie does a good job of showing how you can't really get rid of them, just move past them, sometimes with the assistance of drugs, or other things. The infestation is the visual representation of it.
Then comes the decline. At first it's just a normal part of life, and rationality has a hard grip, but has sadly been weakened by the apathy of others. It's hard to console someone who suffers from these things, only tell them they need professional help and move on. The potential buyers coming in and ignoring what are obvious desperate pleas could represent the feeling of isolation, of being trapped inside your own head. Then the buyers mucking the place up is someone else having an issue and trying to vent or offload it onto you. You're already stressed, and really don't need this, and it's an inconvenience at worst but when you're already tired and worn down it becomes a snowball effect that leads right down the mountain.
Next is the actual delusions, hallucinations, and other severe effects. For me it usually comes in the form of a whispered thought that my friends only tolerate me out of pity, or that some of them aren't my friends at all and only want things from me. I also have minor hallucinations where I feel something on my back, and sometimes, even though I can't see it, I know it to be a dead dog that hangs off my back and tells me these things. I know how absolutely insane that sounds, which is good. As for the Developer? He was far too slow to act as his symptoms worsened, letting them disrupt routines and daily life. I won't touch on how incompetent police are when handling someone with a mental health crisis, and move on to the last step.
The final step is the fall. It's like everything in the world is slowly getting darker, lights are getting dim, voices blur and fade away, kind of like in those horror movie sequels where the main character sees something that throws them back to the first movie. It's an overwhelming tide, and it kind of feels how Everywhere at the End of Time sounds (and I know it's about Dementia). You could try and fight it, but it'll only exhaust you and frustrate you and make things worse. You could try and seek help, but you can't afford professional care and everyone who *could* have helped has already left. In the end you're alone, and have to retreat into the safest and darkest place you can. A lot of people are lost there, due to self harm or an unending cycle keeping them in the last three steps, while others learn to suffer through it and hold on until the storm is over. It looks like the Developer is stuck in the cycle though.
Did I help you beat the Algorithm monster by typing this essay?
That “dead dog” might be real, but it’s probably not a dead dog.
THANK YOU this made me so happy I really love the second story and this is beyond how I could ever explain it truely beautiful
You should smoke weed
Better than pharmaceuticals
@@zanehayes4380 as someone who used to suffer from the same issues as op, please don’t do this. One of the hardest obstacles when trying to get better was people telling me I was hearing real angels/demons/spirits.
I feel like it was beneficial to the third story to have that second story come before it because after the second story ended with the developer going insane I was fully expecting the third story to have a depressing ending, thus I was really pleasantly surprised when the ending of the third story was more positive.
I think the burning of the doll house represents the home and family that the girl loves being broken for greed.
That makes a lot of sense considering the fact that greed does play a major role in all three stories
When it comes to the second story, I do have a theory, but it might be a bit of a strech.
I think you overlooked that not only is the house a state of mind but also that the Developer was trying to sell it. I feel like it was representing him trying to gain friends and aquaintences but since he has been acting weird noone felt like doing so. Plus if he did sell it it would be a fair trade - he would give them house and they would give him money (although when it is all symbolic I guess money would be shown as friendship and contact).
When the strange couple barge in and decide to live there, they don't give anything in exchange. Like toxic friends.
Since they made him feel horrible, not only at the end they started looking and acting like those bugs (mental ilnesses) but the Developer was also trying to cope with them by using drugs, like with bugs
I dunno, it came to my head 🤷
Kinda like when people have a “drug buddy”
Yeah, that was exactly what I understood it as. Thank you for explaining, so I didn't have to, lol.
Man, something was really "bugging" The developer.
Yes! As a person who struggles with mental health, the scene where the couple picks him up from the hospital is really spot on with the comfort some mental illness give you. Cuz even if its something you know is not good for you it will always be there for you
The House more feels like an SCP to me.
It's change in location, characters, and the way it affects/represents the owner's mental state gives off SCP vibes.
The first story reminds me of the living room
Same!
Wow! That's a lot of likes. I never thought this would get 632 likes, but here we are 😄...
Sure does 🏠
I agree!
I think the second story was the most interesting.. the fact that the bugs were welcoming him home at the end was such an interesting metaphor to me! It was definitely about mental illness
It should have ended with him being taken to court for stalking his dentist.
Yeah the bugs remind me of the kinds of predators who force their way into your life when you are at your lowest - like how mentally ill drug users often get "cuckooed" (where a group of predatory people take over your house)
I love how each underlying meaning comes together despite all stories being in something of alternative universes.
The first representative of materialism, the second mental health, and the last having both elements, but slowly healing and moving forward (not necessarily letting go since we see the house being taken with her; instead more along the lines of slowly healing, which is more realistic to actually recovery.)
with the second short, i expected the weird couple and their "family members" to be the furbeetles that have combined together as a disguise after gaining sentience, kinda like how you see kids in cartoons sitting on each others shoulders to sneak into the cinema, i thought they were going to kill the developer as revenge for him constantly trying to get rid of them
me too!
Yep, same here. From the moment I noticed that their character designs resembled bugs, and how the film made parallels to them and the bugs in messing up the place.
The choice of making the characters in Act II serves to emphasize the story of the infestation. Bugs are arguably the most common type of pest, but one of the other most common pests is mice and rats. This also plays into how the odd couple and their relatives look and act like the fur beetles, following the description of destroying anything and everything, and the developer joining them in their destruction of the house. After fighting the infestation for so long he became the thing he saught to destroy. A pest.
"I think the house represents life. The first story: the family has the opportunity to live a better and more wealthy life, and you can slowly see that the only people who care about the material things are being consumed by it. The lights represents how they are blinded by the materialistic things and the lavish lifestyle." - Buzz Lightyear
When did Buzz say this?
@@1fishmob today 6 hours ago
To me, I kind of had the interpretation of each short revolving around the theme of control. The family being controlled by the new house and the man who made it, the contractor losing control of himself when things are going awry, and Rosa releasing the control that the house has on her.
I felt the third short was about death. Elias, Jen, Rosa and all of the other tenants had died during the "flood" and the stagnant state of the house represents limbo. All of the other tenants had moved on and accepted death but Rosa is still hanging onto her life, Jen and Elias stayed to try and help free her. Cosmos was just a spirit guide assisting the last few souls escape and Rosa joining her friends was her acceptance of death
Steve, a film I HAVE to suggest Restart the Earth.
It's a sci-fi, drama, Chinese film, and also live-action. Pretty much, it's about humans creating a drug to save the earth so the plants can survive, but the drug works *too* well, and plants take over the earth and kill everybody, excluding a few survivors.
so its basically day of the triffids.
How much social credit do we get for watching it? I've made so many Whinnie the Pooh jokes, I have to get at least 250k points .
@@theblackbaron4119 to watch it uou must go to the beautiful country of Taiwan
Throughout the 3rd story I felt there was more to the friends, specifically with Elias. I saw an idea on Rosa having some trauma and it made me think more about her parents, we see a picture of them and I wonder if the reason shes so focused on money and the house is because that was her parents dreams, their desires and the house was possibly the only thing she has from them ... Maybe they left her alone and she is cutting herself off from her friends and even having her own family. She doesn't want to be hurt again and so she doesn't try to get close. Jen is supposed to be the motherly/sisterly friend she needs, explaining why she's able to vent to her compared to Elias. Cosmos is supposed to be the Caring father who actually focused on what Rosa was needing and helping her become her own self. And Elias was missed opportunity, he drew pictures of her from afar, not really something you would do normally abd he was more focused on her personal health/survival than emotional journey. I think he had some form of crush on her, wanting to be close but she didn't see it and ignored it. I think that's probably why he left first, he didn't have to stay, being a fisherman he could probably live on his own quite easily but he stayed for her, they all acted as a reason for her to grow, cosmos was the help she needed, Jen was the guidance and gentle push, and Elias was the straw that broke the camel's back for lack of a better phrase, leaving hurt Rosa more than she was expecting and it started letting her see everything and eventually grow
That would make sense as Jen and cosmos give unconditional support while Elias gives fish like a provider (such as a husband would)What's good about this short though is she's the only one with a happy ending.And there's a reason too.In the first short, the family moves in and there's problems, yet they flat out ignore, not even bothering to cover them up, yet embraces them.The 2nd short, the developer takes notice and tries to cover them up.And in this one, she tries to take better care of it but as we, it doesn't work by herself.The entire time, she tries so hard to take control of the house.But in the end, the house takes control of her, yet in a much happier way than the others.Because in this one, she finds happiness.In the first short, we see a family full of greed who, upon moving in, notice problems of the house and choose to ignore.The 2nd short shows us someone who's dealing with mental health and only has toxic friends who don't give anything in return.He notices the problems yet chooses to board them up and try to suppress them.In the last one however, she notices and tries to take charge, and at first ignoring her support, she gets nowhere.Its not until after she decides to let go and move on with them that she can finally be the one to take control of the house, where in the other 2, the house takes control of them.The way I see it, the house is meant to just be one big metaphor for life.The family in the first one let's their lives control them, the 2nd one does nothing to fix it yet insteads buries it down, and the third one where she let's people into her life, granting her the gift to finally take control and find peace.
I think the theme of obsession and delusion is super interesting, especially when the first short directly contrasts with the third short. In the first short, the decision of letting go of the old house is the downfall of the family, with an obsession for materialism. In the third short, the *refusal* to let go was almost Rosa's downfall, with her obsession about normalcy and keeping her home. Van Schoonbeek is like a devil figure, tempting the family with a "new life" and exploiting their insecurities, compared to Cosmos's savior role, giving Rosa a means to escape and adapt to the changing world.
In all three shorts, the characters struggle with the delusion that everything's fine and normal. The parents are deluded with wealth, the developer is deluded with appearance, and Rosa's deluded with the status quo of the past. The parents ignore the strange happenings and the suspicious nature of the deal because they're blinded by the surface-level glamor, neglecting their children until it's too late to right themselves. The developer neglects himself and the house, trying to keep up the appearance that everything's all fine when he seriously needs help that he refuses to ask for (and *can't* get anyway if the police snubbing his literal calls for help says anything). Rosa focuses on money because she wants to keep up the illusion of normalcy, ignoring a genuine support system (keeping her healthy physically and mentally) to ignore the impending doom literally outside her home.
The cycle of getting lost in a delusion and meeting your doom is only broken with Rosa when her support systems helps her realize what's really happening to her and giving her the means to break out of the metaphorical and actual fog. She might not have left the house in the end, but it stopped being her prison.
My suggestion is that the crux of the second story is repression. Whatever the Developer's problem (represented by the fur beetles) really is, his solution (poison/drugs) doesn't work. So he resorts to repressing it; dressing the house up nicely and trying to pretend as though nothing is wrong. But the root issue is still there, and soon re-emerges as the strange couple. They behave exactly like the fur bugs: they move in, trash the place and scare away potential buyers, act like they own the house, and invite their family in. The same problem with a different appearance. Ultimately the Developer returns to his original solution of poison, which we already know won't work. When that fails he succumbs to his demons, which now take a strange halfway shape between the couple and the fur beetles.
I really like the second short. I suffer with depression and psychosis, and I struggle to say what I actually feel, because it’s difficult to explain. This does an excellent job at showing how a problem in the mind can be patched up and fine, but slowly it will continue to infest your mind if you don’t take the proper steps to care for yourself. It takes time, and you can’t shortcut. The rat poison feels like a direct connection to drug use to destroy the problems, either pharmaceutical or illegal. Although they can be used for management, they’re never a solution, especially the illegal ones, and as a result he ends up in the hospital, with none of the infestation gone but feeling worse. Him calling his dentist constantly and calling them “darling” could be a problem with isolation, or a problem with psychosis, which the police don’t care about because the mental illness behind it doesn’t matter to them.
I’m guessing it connects more with people that have spent their lives struggling mentally. I’ve spent my entire life calling my head a café because I can physically hear the hustle and bustle constantly, even if it’s completely quiet. I spent years ignoring it and trying to tell myself it will go away, because my parents just ignored it, so I should too. But it just gets worse if you patch up the cracks and pretend everything is fine.
Last year I was hospitalized, and it was only really in the last couple months I realized just… how horrible my mental state was. It was psychotic depression, and like you said it’s not possible to describe. You watch a bunch of movies, and see how the media depicts mental illness so you basically determine “oh, I’m not experiencing any of that so it can’t be too bad” and the whole time I was genuinely afraid that I would lose myself. I was spacing out and entirely losing varying periods of time, I heard people calling my name, and I experienced the worst dread and paranoia I’ve ever felt. There are good metaphorical depictions of it, like the second short, but really nothing can describe or prepare you for the sensation of psychosis and how it completely consumes you.
I absolutely LOVE your interpretation of the second short. I didn’t think of it that way. My original take on it (I only viewed the film once) was that the film focused on three parties when it comes to a house; The Tenant, The Developer, and The Landlord.
All shorts except for the second one seemed to have variations of each party in my initial interpretation. The first film has a landlord (Mr Van Schoonbeek), tenants (the family), and developers (the builders.)
The third has a landlord (Rosa), tenants (Jen an Elias), and a developer (Cosmos).
The second one is what put a pause on this connection for me.
This might be a bit of a stretch but the bank that the mice character is constantly calling in the 2nd part may be a part of this triad?
I like the theory and it helps make sense of a line that sent me reeling. When the developer meets the rest of the family, it is mentioned the house was originally theirs(or something along those words) this could allude to them being the landlords. The tenants could thus be them again or be the bugs (or they are one and the same).
lol, when i started reading your post, i thought the connection was to the three shorts;
first short is the tenants, 2nd short is the developer, and 3rd short is the landlord-
which could be one (still pretty slim) thing that tie the three movies together
I think the second story is more of a Kafka's story (bugs, mental illness, unlucky protagonist). And you know the only Kafkian characters who gets an happy ending are the ones from unfinished stories.
Definitely feel like the 3rd short was more about trauma and moving forward. Taking charge of your life despite what happened.
Like those two tenants mightve been actual people in her life that rosa depended on for support( hence needing money). Something happened that broke them apart that traumatized her, maybe they got tired of her toxic behaviour or the black cat died and the other cat couldnt cope with rosa.
I believe the couple in the second act are representations of the fur beetles and silverfish that infested the house. Not only do they have the shape of these insects but also at the end they and their family have 6 legs as if they were insects. If you look at it from a certain perspective it makes sense, they are "very interested in the house" but they just stay inside it without ever paying for it and in the process destroying it, it makes me think that they are a hallucination provoked by the poison. A materialization of Developer's fear that only the insects infesting his house are interested in it and he being left alone, full of debts and with the house completely infested. Which ends up coming true
For a more in-universe theory as to why The House is present in every short despite the different creatures, I'd say that the House is an element present on each and every universe. At some point, at some time, no matter which, this House will be built. Be it either by a maniacal rich person that might just be a bloody demon, a lonely broken rat man or a cat lady affixed with nostalgia and making the House brand new.
Watching this movie was an experience quite disturbing but really interesting
I wanna point out that the little dolls Mabel plays with looks like the elderly rat/bug couple in the next story.
Hearing your interpretation of the Rosa short was an eye opener. I watched it with the impression that Rosa was the one sensible hard worker with goals and dreams while her tenants were lazy parasites. Hearing you point out that the house was a waste of energy makes me wonder if I should rethink my priorities.
It ties into the other 2 stories aswell.
The first story has a line about the condition for the family moving into the new "house" was that they then can't go back to their old "home". They always refer to the new place as the house and the old one is a home. The house is all gaudy and soulless while the old home although small, was made a home because of the family itself. The parents were too obsessed with the material aspect of having a large decorated house that they neglected the most important part of what makes a house a home, namely their children. Their materialistic obsession eventually consumes them literally by turning them into furniture. If they were less obsessed when the house burned down then they would still be able to rebuild a new home so long as they had each other. Material things fade or get destroyed over time.
The second story has the estate agent rat obsess so much with how the house is presented in order to sell it to a point he isolates himself from normal social interaction and to the detrement of his mental health. He made viewers of the house uncomfortable with his stunted social skills and conversation only aboug superficial stuff about how nice the house looks. He longs for a connection, hence him talking innapropriately to his dentist who is probably the only person he interacted with for any length of time while he was working, but his obsession with the house and selling it meant he pushed everyone away and had no one left to help him. The odd couple can be interpretted multiple ways but I personally saw aspects of them simply being happy acting out their most primal urges because they at least had each other but he looked down on them because of their appearance and eccentricness. After his mental breakdown at the hospital he no longer cares about the house looking a certain way and just embraces acting out his most basic needs among the other insects.
The last one had the landlord care too much about this idealised vision of what she felt was a "perfect house" and refused to see beyond that, even when the house was likely going to be destroyed by the flood anyway soon. The tennants know the house is doomed but care enough about her to try help her see past it. What's the point in spending your whole life caring only about money and things you own if tomorrow it could all be lost? What will you have left? The landlord eventually realised this and just decided to leave with the others because they could always form a new home anywhere so long as they were together. She learns the lesson just in time unlike the parents in the first story who died as a result of their materalistic obsession or the rat who only gave up his obsession after a total mental breakdown completely losing his old self.
Rosa expecting her tenants to pay rent when everywhere is flooded is not sensible
I got the same feeling while watching it at first, getting frustrated on her behalf as she was trying to get the house in order while her tenants talked about everything else. it did make for an odd shift at the end when it turned out they were actually trying to help her all along.
@@remnants9974 They were dropping hints the entire time. Rosa saying she would ‘fix the house up and get tenants back in’, to which Jen replies, ‘and overtime move everyone back out.’ To which Rosa doesn’t even reply.
Hinting that yeah, you can absolutely polish your trauma up to be bearable to the rest. For a while… Over time, most are going to see that you’re a lost cause and drift away all over again.
🎵 A house 🏠 is not a home
I actually liked the small faces in the first short ., I thought it was really adorable, especially on Mabel and Isobel~ Also Mr. Thomas's voice actor was so good! Him having a breakdown was really well done, it was chilling~
Excuse me? Mabel ugly and isobel is the mastermind behind this all. That big headed bum called isobel lead mabel down to their old house hence they woke up and were trapped
I definitely liked the second story the best. He starts out with people around him (it's stated that he fired the other contractors, and we see all the people come into the house for the showing) and he gradually becomes more and more isolated, with his only company being the parasites that invited themselves in. My worst nightmare. Probably because I see parallels between that and mental illness. The illness invites itself in, and if you're not careful, gradually takes you over until you're completely and utterly alone.
I think it's important - in the third short, Jen absolutely offers emotional support but she's also providing food from her garden! It's easy to miss but important (however you interpret it) that both "tenants" (friends) are providing food for them all to survive, while Rosa isn't. I believe Jen mentions the flood taking out the garden in their meal together, which was also part of her motivation to move on and nudge Rosa to the reality of it.
Your take of the second short completely changed the way I looked at it - me and my friend weren't really sure what to make of it! It fits very well, especially since his life is literally consumed by it in the last shots.
I also loved the song at the end the show, which really pushes the idea that the shorts are about the difference between a 'house' and a 'home'. With a home being somewhere you don't pretend/aspire to not just be yourself, which fits with all the shorts! All stories do have an element of greed - by being possessed by the aspirations the house gives, not true to their needs. Song: th-cam.com/video/87NqpJFcYTM/w-d-xo.html 🎵🎶
Worth noting is that Rosa only wanted tenants to renovate the house - Use the rent money to renovate little by little until it's done and she doesn't need tenants. The place might have been her childhood home, hence her attachment to it, the photo of her with her parents, the 'house and home' like ya said. Glad she got happy ending. \o/
They were right about the unsettling”ness”
The fact the parents act weird become furniture is over the line
I used to be scared of “becoming things” but after watching spirited away I got over my fear
And now my fear is back
So yea
Welcome back I guess...
I think that the stories having different species struggling in the house symbolizes that these problems happen to so many different people with so many different backgrounds.
I agree with you that the house/s symbolize their minds/ who they are.
I don’t know why but Isabel falling down the stairs just made me laugh so hard😆
the second part of this made me so fear-stricken that i felt physically ill and had to go outside. it was incredibly effective for me and i don't know why. i also think of them being the "same house" in the same sense that the house from The Haunting Of Hill House and The Haunting Of Bly Manor are the "same house". they aren't the same house, not really, just the same set/location on which different stories take place.
I think the idea of them being different animals is reflective of different kinds of people when it comes to materialism; the humans represent a kind of greed and desire only we humans can have, the rats represent how (even in the worst of squalor) they refuse to leave their current home/nest, and the cats represents how once there is nothing left for them they move on. Also, I'd like to point out when put together, the names of the shorts make a poem; "And heard within, a lie is spun, then lost is truth that can't be won, listen again and seek the sun".
Each part of the poem vaguely describes what happens in each part…to me the full poem means that when you have a something negative (aka lie/untruth) within you, dwelling on that alone won’t help you. You must seek outside of yourself for solutions to progress in life.
i felt like with the 2nd short it had to deal more with pests rather then mental health. the two people that live in the house have very similar design with the bugs. Like bugs, they feast and ruin everything in the house which causes the developer to go mad, but he wont stop letting bad people or "pests" into his home which COULD represent him and what its like living with people who are like that, cause as the saying goes "if you stick around different people, then you start acting like them" or sumthin
It's worth noting the guy who did the voice of the odd husband that this was actually his final voice role before he died
It's about immigration! (Twitter goes insane and sends CCP spies to assassinate Alondro... who just eats them to increase his power level, as he's done with the previous ones!) Soon, I shall be powerful enough to absorb 17 and 18, and achieve my perfect FINAL FORM!! (Because this isn't even his final form and he hasn't even used 0.000001% of this maximum power!)
This makes as much sense as the short, lol.
Idk why but the second story was the one that freaked me out the most, mainly because the ending is something so foreign to the start and is no longer a society that we are familiar to
@@jennims2885 Yeah that 2nd one actually left me kinda nauseated and scarred in a way. Horror which does that with no onscreen deaths and no gore, is so rare and incredible.
@@avosmash2121 right? Is that type that makes you feel out of the loop and just terrified, really fascinating
out of all the movies you've reviewed so far, this one hit home, hard. I used to smoke weed for several reasons, however, i recently quit. The urge to return to it is still there, plaguing my mind yet every day i awake, it does lessen a tad more, yet, the reasons are still there too. Haunting me, and even my dreams. Effecting my health in ways i never knew were possible. I suffer from a nasty case of fear of hospitals and doctors, the weed helped ease it, it wasn't until recently i realised, my problems weren't going away, they was just being hidden by the weed. Since quitting it, my mind has cleared (yes, sure it still hectic as all hell but its a lot clearer than it has been in a while) and i went to the docs for the first time in a while (found lumps on my left wrist, now waiting for appointment for ultra sound), when i was waiting to see the doc, i noticed, i was a lot more calmer then i used to be when i used to go there in the past, i do wonder if its possible to not just over come my fear of docs but perhaps defeat the fear of hospitals too, with time & patience. This movie made me ask a question i havent thought of for in a while, could I finally heal mentally?.....in truth? i don't know but perhaps on this new journey, i might be able to find out, so all in all, Lord Steve, thank you. Thank You for making me remember that question and for showing me, its ok to ask for help, its ok to let go of things and people. You are awesome :) xxx
The last short was definitely my favorite of the three. Brought a tear to my eye.
I'm surprised that for the second short you never mentioned the similarities between the features of the strange couple and their kin to the fur beetles. This connects to the idea is that after things began to slip for him (calling the cops and ending up in the hospital) the issues began to multiply and reside more permanently with him (the strangers bring him home to a larger group of the same kind of uncanny strangers). Much like an untreated infestation or untreated mental illness.
Here's an idea about why they could have been released together: Equal exposure, like when a bunch of indie bands release a demo tape together in hopes of lifting each other up.
Another thing I noticed that you may have been spot-on about is the idea of past-present-future. I grew up in Seattle, where it's not unheard of to see photos of the same building on varying degrees of hill top as filler soil is dug up out of construction sites, then dumped in areas that would benefit from a more even landscape. As time passes, that filler soil isn't as compact as the natural land around it, so erosion can reveal the original hills as the less dense filler is washed away.
Otherwise, I think I liked the aesthetic of the second film the best, the third would be middle for me, and the first, last. They're all very well done in their own rights, but I'm absolutely enamored at the fact I can see aspects of pet rats I've come to know in the faces and mannerisms of the second animation.
What if they were intended to be chronologically ordered, and man to rat is a nod to Mice & Men? Then, naturally, cats would rule over rats/mice, and potentially wipe them out, or at least relegate them to a lower class?
I sent a request for this one! Glad it was heard. I personally loved it, as soon as the first short ended and I realised there would be multiple stories I did just start treating them as separate. I agree with a lot of your analysis. I think one interesting tidbit I had the from second short is that only at the end, where you see the developer in his primal state, do you realise they were ALL always vermin. But because we're used to anthromorphised characters we take the mice as 'people' and the bugs as the 'alien' beings.
I feel that all three stories were all from the same universe, that the 'mouse' and 'cat' looks of the other stories were just abstract ways of presenting the characters to assist in delivering the message. The house being on a hill in the first story but in a city the next just shows the passage of time, rather than the house itself morphing. It was pretty common a long time ago for houses to be moved a bit while leveling areas to have more even ground to make it easier to build there.
I love how you made sense of the 2nd part. I couldn’t manage to get any meaning out of it, but your explanation makes a lot of sense to me.
I really loved this movie and I love analyzing them! For my own take, I think the house represents the insecurities of all of the characters, their pasts and a reflection of themselves. Growing up with parents that would neglect you, the house turning from a pace of safety into a giant wooden prison and their parents sinking into their own misery until they push their children away to save them. They had to burn the house and keep moving forward to save themselves. The mouse man thought that the house was all he needed, that one thing and he would be perfect, but his dark desires and bits of vitriol in himself find their way into his vision, the bugs take over the house and eventually he falls into his pit of despair and departs from the world scarred by the parts of himself he didn’t want to acknowledge. The cat’s house is her sanctuary but also her prison, she’s too scared to leave her home but not strong enough to fix it alone. She has friends that stick it out for as long as they can but eventually they have to put themselves first, urging her to follow them and see that the world is more than a shroud of mists, that one house isn’t her entire being and opening up and moving on from the past is okay, because part of it will always be with you.
I think the cat lady was actually in a coma, nothing makes sense to her and the ones with her aren't giving her anything she can use.
They keep talking and giving emotional support but in the end, only that lever she managed to push which was most likely a twitch of her finger, gave her and her friends hope again.
The mist is probably a sign of her acknowledging the cloudiness of her own actions and those around her, where she starts realizing she's in a coma.
I do feel bad for Rosa though
Honestly I saw it as parallel universes, with the house existing in different dimensions in a sense, with the house being the one consistent thing between the parallels
The 3rd part of the film deserves it’s own standalone
It was super cute! 2nd one was just pure schizophrenia though unironically 1st one kinda eh.
@@kingmetalnoslime4931 yeah, the second one was very unnerving to watch, but honestly, the first one was also very good and beautifully animated
Yes and an expansion of the two children from the first film.
I thought 3rd is better than second one.
I agree! The third film is by far my favorite, I adore it so much. The ending made me tear up :,)
I think the Developer trying to sell his house is a metaphor for him trying to find companionship. He makes the house as polished as possible to try to impress others so he can get a sale which represents him trying to impress others to gain companionship. He’s so desperate for companionship in fact, that he even constantly calls his dentist and refers to him as “darling” which naturally weirds the dentist out.
But I don’t know why he was calling his dentist. Did he have a toothache, root canal, abscess, or cavity that needed to be fixed? No. Also the developer was preventing the dentist from curing his patients, which is very dangerous. Deterring a doctor or nurse from curing patients is very dangerous, and it can even be fatal. There were patients that needed their teeth fixed by his dentist urgently. They could have died.
I saw this as soon as it had been released onto Netflix and I have absolutely been hypnotized by these strange yet elegant stories, I hope to see more beautiful art like this.
Alright, Let's try this again:
I recommend 'The King Of Pigs'. It's a korean animation movie about two childhood friends who meet one night to revisit the school they went to as kids where they faced severe bullying and experienced a traumatic event that still haunts them in their adulthood.
Fair Warning: Bullying, Abuse, Depression, Violence, Death and animal violence
I saw the movie when it came out thanks to the "coming soon" section. I prefered them from the first to last but only the first's theme was clear to me. The order is still the same in my heart after your video but it helped me finally under the two later shorts and for that you have all my thanks. Also I wanna point your videos are as entertaining as ever! As long as you enjoy your work, I hope to keep seeing more of your stuff ^^
I had the opposite reaction. I like Them best from last to first. I did not quite get the first one, but IT still manage to keep me entertaint.👍
I feel like the overall message is obsession. And the house I feel gives whoever lives in it a curse that ultimately demises them.
I think the third story represents people that hate their lives and can break free but feel too scared to take a chance, change their lives and seek out new chances and they end up trapped in stagnation repeating the same medial tasks in the hope of getting ahead even though what they’re trying clearly isn’t working but they keep on doing it because as everyone knows change is scary and the fear of taking a risk with something new is able to keep her struggling and circling in the same helpless tasks as what little she has, (like her friends) begin to fall slip away.
It also kind reminds me of a metaphor for life, death and heaven. She fears death (the fog) and she struggles to keep on living, (remain on the island maintaining her home) and her friends begin to sail away, (die) and she can hear them calling from the other side to join them but she’s scared, but when she finally lets go (allows herself to die) she’s reunited with her friends in a beautiful wondrous place beyond the fog, (heaven).
The third story really spoke to me about appreciating not only the small things but appreciating things when they are there and not gone. How the guests present her with the exact things she needs to survive - being surrounded by a flood - with food, companionship & positive mental feeling but Rosa still seeks monetary gain. Maybe also a play that money alone won't make you happy especially that we see that as the guests begin to leave Rosa starts to feel the impact and realizes what's really important. The lever is that symbol of a choice we all have and in that moment it's up to you to either pull it or not.
I love this film so much it is presented well with a main story overall and within each but its vague enough so that you can really just put any meaning onto the film and i love it for that.
I just watched this. The first story was my favorite. It’s just such a hauntingly beautiful animation.
I’m not sure about the second short, but when the developer is calling his “lover” I thought that it’s possible he actually did have a lover.
But- when he started using more and more pesticide, he actually causes himself hallucinations and accidentally calling his dentist or his “darling” broke up with him and he couldn’t accept it and had these fantasies with his dentist.
Also I a lot of people believe the unwanted guest are more insect like, but I believe the developer is a mouse and the unwanted guest are more like rats rather than insects.
After unknowingly going in and out of depression for years, the third short makes me think of the realization i had after months of therapy. I had spent years trying to "just be better" because i could tell something was wrong, but I didn't really know what. What I experienced were the symptoms, so those were what I tried to work on. insomnia? go to bed earlier. Sad? smile more around others so they won't know. Go out less to rest more, talk to others less to rest more, stop making art to rest more, stop playing games to rest more, stop watching movies because who cares. stop doing anything but work because nothing matters anyway, just remember to smile!!
I thought if i just fixed myself somehow, things would work out, and i would be happy, somehow. Just like the character seems to think if she just fixes up the house, people will come to live in it (somehow) and everything will work out. But the longer I tried to tough it out and "fix" myself, the more friends i lost, the more i isolated myself, and the depressed i actually got.
The way her friends try to offer her what she needs, instead of what she wants, and the way she gets frustrated because she believes what she wants is what she needs, all make sense. I know I must have brushed off a lot of good advice gently if not cautiously offered my way as well when I didn't even know i was suffering from depression. Be it upbringing or social context, I was convinced i knew what i had to do or was supposed to do to fix it, so being told "maybe this would help instead" was frustrating at the time.
To me, sailing off with the house and with her friends looks like she's moving forward, not moving on. She can work on fixing her house along the way, with the help of her friends, and meet new people, and finally get more friends in her house again down the line.
I think the friend of a friend could be a psychologist or therapist who gave her the tools to start opening up, represented by the lever. A therapist can give you tools, but they can't fix your problems for you. Starting therapy was scary for me, so was starting anti-depressants for some reason. I had an emotional blockage where i just. didn't. want to. It felt like taking them would be giving up, but giving up on what? Nothing brought me joy anymore... There was already nothing left to lose. Once I overcame that, things started to untangle and get better. The medication helped, therapy helped. Living stopped being painful, which I didn't even realize it was while i was hurting. I was just that used to it.
If you read all this, and you think you might need some help emotionally, please talk to your loved ones, or your doctor, or call a help line.
Because I can tell you from experience: toughing it out for 10 f*king years is NOT worth it!!!
You don't deserve to suffer.
Take care of yourselves
I interpreter Rosa's story more about following a dream/goal and how sometimes, said goal consumes you. We see that Rosa big desire is to fix the house, but this goal is keeping her away of enjoying other aspects of life, like hang out with the people around her, being this dream to consuming and becoming even an obsession or a need. At the end, when she moves with her house, I see it like her dream is still with her, but now is not stopping her to enjoy life, and is more as a companion now.
In all honesty, I think the house getting labeled a comedy might be an error
Ppl don't understand satire anymore
I noticed when I watched the first short, that was literally all of my childhood nightmares combined:
- Moving out of a familiar surrounding
-Said familiar surrounding being destroyed
-awkward conversations with a stranger
-Parents ignoring me (more in a sense of them being brainwashed or mind-addled into forgetting my existence)
-People destroying the things I felt sentimental about
-Fire
-Parents dying because they didn't listen to me
I grew up with films like the Nutcracker and Coraline so it could explain a few. Sometimes I still get nightmares about these things.
I also would have bad dreams about things like my parents being replaced or stolen
I watched this not to long ago and immediately knew you’d review it
Okay?.
I'm getting a kick out of the use of felted characters in these stop motion animations. Felting is my current favorite hobby and it's cool seeing it used in something other than just the creation of fiber sculptures and flat pictures. It's a really fun and relaxing hobby. Can get kind of expensive, but there are ways to keep the cost down.
felt stop motion existed a good while.
@@azadalamiq Yep. The Rankin Bass cartoons like Rudolph.. Its just not as common now. Im glad to see new animators using it :)
Seens cool, I kinda do something similar but with 3d modeling, if you exclude the computer is very cheap as you can do very beatifull characters just with free software.
Edit: Netflix did a chistmas movie imitating this tipe of stop motion.
When each of the shorts is described I thought about how each kinda uses a different style of horror/thriller.
First one: based solely on Steve’s Description it sounded very much Ike a combination of old silent film horror mixed with Edgar Allen Poe if that makes sense
Second one: more like the psychological thrillers of the modern age in which case the scary part isn’t totally the physical things. Kinda put me to mind a little of the Fly with what the Developers deterioration over time.
Third one: oh yeah here we go my cup of tea of the three. This one kinda reminds me of an old Twilight zone episode. In the same way how everyone’s urging her to leave and move on, it put me to mind of the episode The Passersby
Just some random thoughts. Nice review mate
the cat chapter really reminds me of Spirtfarer (the game) its where you take Charon's place and ferry people to the 'everdoor'/entrance to the after life after fulfilling their last requests. Your boat is essentially a giant 'house boat' where you make these cute little rooms/houses specific to each spirit you're ferrying.
I loved this! THough I think something missed from the first episode is how the wallpaper are literal eyeballs staring at the family, judging their every move, always watching.
Also in the second episode, the yellow lights on the wall look like eyes.
I just assumed the bugs disguised themselves as the strange tenants or essentially just became the strange tenants, leaving their buggy shells to become more human in behavior as we see in the musical sequence with the bugs doing certain things that would mainly be seen in a circus
Just a little detail I noticed, in the second short the main character uses a phone with a three lens camera. The first phone to ever implement that was in 2018. Enjoy your vids 🙂👍Well done sir
i feel like the first short also has a distinctly Fae touch to it. the whisking away of the family to a new, strange place, the presentation of food without any explanation of where it came from, etc. also with the food thing, we only see the parents eating the food presented at the house and theyre the ones that ultimately succumb, which was an interesting thing i noticed pretty quickly on during my first watch-through lolol.