Hatanosuke and the Haunted House: A Strange, Dusty Delight

Is it worth your time?

If you have a soft spot for silent-era weirdness, absolutely. It’s short, punchy, and feels like it was filmed in someone's slightly spooky attic. If you need a coherent three-act structure or high-def clarity, you’ll probably be bored out of your mind within sixty seconds.

The whole thing feels like a fever dream you’d have after eating too much cheese before bed. Hatanosuke just sort of walks into this house, and the ghosts immediately start acting like they’ve been waiting for him to show up to a party he didn't RSVP to.

There is this one moment where a specter floats by, and you can clearly see the wire work—it’s not even trying to hide it. Honestly, that made me like it more. It has that same unfiltered energy you see in The Oklahoma Cyclone, where the craft is secondary to the sheer audacity of just making the thing happen.

The Monsters

The creature designs are... well, they are something. Some look like bedsheets with googly eyes, and others look like someone took a bunch of fur scraps and glued them onto a mop handle. It works, though. It’s not trying to be Maciste in Africa with its scale; it just wants to be spooky on a budget.

Hatanosuke doesn't really have a plan. He just sort of swings his arms around and hopes the ghosts get the message. It reminded me a bit of the frantic pacing in The Untamed Lady, just with more ectoplasm.

• The lighting changes from "moody" to "I think they just turned on the house lights" in a blink.
• The sword fight choreography is mostly just people bumping into furniture.
• I’m pretty sure the lead ghost is wearing a pair of boots that weren't period-appropriate.

It’s not a masterpiece. It’s not even trying to be one. But it’s got a weird, frantic rhythm that kept me watching until the screen went black. Sometimes, that’s all you really need. 👻