DVD Review: Housewife (2017)

In a snow ensconced Gothic home; holly and her sister live with their off-kilter mother who speaks with invisible visitors, and rubs the ol’ rosary in front of a picture of a Victorian woman framed in neon. Things go from insane to even more fucking insane when Holly’s sister gets her period and her mother drowns hew sister by shoving her head in the toilet. Then Daddy dearest arrives, and Mommy slices him to pieces as Holly escapes into the snowy night.
Flash forward and Holly (Clémentine Poidatz) is living in a lonely marriage to a famous author. She spends her days building dollhouses, dancing badly, and masturbating as she thinks of her sister’s death…you know, as one does…oh and she also pees everywhere but the toilet. Things go on like that until Holly’s friend Valery (Alicia Kapudag) makes the scene after mysteriously disappearing for two years. Seems our gal Val has hooked up with a bizarre cult named Umbrella of Love and Mind led by the ultra-enigmatic, black clad, K.C. and the Sunshine Band dancin’ Bruce O’Hara (David Sakurai). After meeting ol Bruce, Holly’s world begins to become one of dreams becoming reality, and ever-shifting truth.
Housewife is one hell of a mind-bendin’ fright flick; of that you can be sure! Brought to us by Can Evrenol (along with co-writer Cem Özüduru), the dude that unleashed the beast that is Baskin, this picture deftly combines Gothic atmosphere and tropes (the lonely, haunted woman in a grande manse), ’70’s style New Age psychic powers mumbo-jumbo, and straight up Lovecraftian horror…and all are presented with equal aplomb! It’s also chock full of cold, snowy environs, some incredible performances (Poidatz and Sakurai were the stand-outs for me), burning neon lighting that would make Argento drool, nightmare logic, and a red-hot streak of sensuality. Also the film possesses an ending sequence that had my jaw dropping to the floor so hard it nearly cracked the Pergo!
As for the negatives with Housewife; my only gripe comes from the DVD release itself, rather than the feature. The universe the film presents is so rich and full of eldritch mythology I was hoping for a deep dive into special features to learn more…but alas, this disc has nothing…not even the film’s trailer…
Housewife is simply put one hell of a psychotronic journey through Gothic tinged territory any fan of H.P. Lovecraft would doubtless dig; it’s a sexually charged fever-dream of a fright flick and shouldn’t be missed!