Spoiler Warning: The House (2022)The House, a film written by Enda Walsh, is a British stop-motion film that reveals the dangers of investing too much in a house and not enough in an actual home. Over the course of three vignettes, The House spans multiple worlds and several species of characters, all while revolving around the same single house. The official synopsis reads:

Outside of the house itself, the one through-line from one vignette to another is that of the natural timeline of a home. It is built. It is remodeled. And then, eventually, it is a lost cause. But aside from this, each of the house’s inhabitants has their own lessons to learn and dangers to face in this mesmerizing horror-comedy.

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Status-Obsessed Parents Trade Lives for a House

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The first part of the anthology, “And Heard Within a Lie Is Spun,” begins with a human family that lives in what appears to be a perfectly nice farmhouse in the country. The story primarily follows Mabel, the nine-year-old daughter who lives happily with her parents and new baby sister. But when wealthy relatives visit to see the baby, it becomes clear not only that these relatives look down on their home but that Mabel’s father is embarrassed by it as well.

Later, Mabel’s father drinks to excess and then goes out into the woods, where he meets a stranger in a carriage who claims to be an architect who wants to give Mabel’s father a new house. He readily agrees, and the next morning, the whole family moves into their new house – a mansion on a hill not far from their old home.

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Mabel’s parents are so enchanted with their new digs that they fail to notice what Mabel notices. Even when they finally do see, it hardly hits them in the same way. Mabel’s disconcerted by the fact the new house is not finished and often changes. When Mabel and her father see through a window their old home is being torn down for materials, Mabel finds it sad while her father laughs eerily at the sight. The primary difference between Mabel and her parents is that Mabel remains concerned for the health and welfare of her baby sister, while her parents seem to forget what a house is for – family. As a result, her parents are absorbed into the house, only waking to the fact the family is in danger much too late.

House-Flipper Becomes the Vermin He Tried to Eliminate

The second part, “Then Lost Is Truth That Can’t Be Won,” reveals the house sometime later, clearly renovated and no longer isolated on a hill – but in the midst of a city. Now the house is inhabited by an anthropomorphic rat – the renovator who plans to flip the house once he’s done renovating. He does all the work himself and spends a great deal of time and money making everything just perfect; unfortunately, in his effort to do everything alone, he fails to address the house’s bug problem properly.

Eventually, though, it’s time to show the house. He experiences some setbacks throughout the evening, but he makes do, and many other anthropomorphic rats show up. However, they generally seem less enthusiastic, except for one particular couple who shows up late and then stays late. But because they’ve expressed interest in the house, the house flipper humors them.

Unfortunately, the house-flipper is so invested in selling the house he fails to notice in time that the couple he’s trying to keep on the hook are actually giant bugs – large versions of the kind he was trying to kill off earlier in the story. While a normal person or anthropomorphic rat might notice something is awry, escape the house, and get help, the house-flipper is too invested to ask for help until it’s too late. He calls the police, but they’re more concerned with other issues the house-flipper has failed to address while in pursuit of his dream. Eventually, there’s nothing more the house-flipper can do, and all his efforts are for naught. He inadvertently becomes a permanent part of what should have been a temporary project.

Dream House Blinds Owner to Reality

In the third part, “Listen Again and Seek the Sun,” the same house is now owned by an anthropomorphic cat, Rosa, in a post-apocalyptic landscape covered by extreme floodwaters and thick fog, making it impossible to know what else exists beyond the house. Despite the world around her, Rosa dreams of having enough tenants that the rent she collects will eventually pay for all the repairs the house needs, and finally, her house will be perfect – and all hers.

Unfortunately, this house is near impossible to improve in the midst of a mysterious, world-ending flood. Still, it’s all Rosa cares about. She has two tenants; a male cat named Elias and an older female cat named Jen. Elias and Jen can’t seem to pay rent on time (which seems reasonable given that none of them ever leave the house - it’s unclear where the money would come from), but Rosa continues to ask them for it.

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Rosa’s dream has clearly prevented her from dealing with reality – even as the world ends. Her refusal to face reality comes to a head when Elias rips up the floorboards to build himself a boat. He leaves, and eventually, Jen does as well. Luckily for Rosa, her ending is not as bleak as the house’s previous owners, but only because she’s finally willing to try something new if it means being with her friends again. This conclusion proves that home is with one’s loved ones, regardless of efforts put into a house.