THE WOLF HOUSE (La Casa Lobo) presented by El Cine

"A creative tour-de-force" – Hollywood Reporter

"Beautiful and grotesque" – Screen International

"(A) one of a kind animated feature" – Cartoon Brew

Making its return to the PRS screen, 7th House and El Cine are proud to co-present an eerie, nightmarish fairy tale quite unlike any other seen: Chilean filmmakers Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña's THE WOLF HOUSE (LA CASA LOBO, 2018)! Singular, immersive, and profoundly unnerving, this astonishing work of stop-motion animation draws us into a handmade world that seems to mutate before our eyes—a feverish, claustrophobic dreamscape where walls seem to breathe, bodies transform, and the comforting language of children's stories curdles into something genuinely frightening.

For their audacious debut feature, Cociña and León shot the film frame by frame, combining hand drawn animation with (often life size) stop motion animation to create one, dreamlike continuous shot which tells the story of Maria, a young woman finds refuge in a house in the south of Chile after escaping from a sect of German religious fanatics. She is welcomed into the home by two pigs, the only inhabitants of the place. Like in a dream, the universe of the house reacts to Maria’s feelings. The animals transform slowly into humans and the house becomes a nightmarish world. Inspired by the actual case of real life cult Colonia Dignidad, THE WOLF HOUSE masquerades as an animated fairy tale produced by the leader of the sect in order to indoctrinate its followers.

The characters are represented in two ways: first as animated puppets made out of paper, cardboard, masking tape and paint; and second as animated drawings on the walls of the house. The animation not only includes the movement of the characters, but also how they appear, vanish and transform from one state to another. The house moves and transforms constantly. These changes can be interpreted as earthquakes, as dreams or as manifestations of the house's will. We see how the house is destroyed,reshaped and reconstructed. These alterations are performed through wall drawings and paintings, the creation of real cracks and holes, and the movement, destruction and mutation of the furniture.

Adding to the surreal experience is the film's an uneasy audio landscape, composed of the characters' voices, ambient sound, foley and vocal music design. These elements meld into one sound structure designed to confuse the borders between the different elements.

Equally evocative of Walt Disney's children's cinema and horror films, THE WOLF HOUSE is a haunted house film like none other and one that must be seen to be believed. Not to be missed!

Dirs. Cristóbal León & Joaquín Cociña, 2018, 73 mins, Chile, Spanish/German w/ English Subtitles, Unrated, Digital.

TICKETS: $12 (In Person Event Only)

Please email events@prs.org or phone 323-663-2167 with any questions.