terajk

Fandom: Hausu (1977)
Music: The Irish Rover by Djazia Satour
Summary: Seven girls, one killer house party.
Content notes: Physical triggers (e.g., epilepsy or migraine: strobe lights, bright lights, “stutters” cuts between 2–3 stills), nudity, violence, spoilers
Length: 2:00

"A Happy Song Where Everybody Dies" (Watch on YouTube)

Download MP4

Lyrics:

On the fourth of July, eighteen hundred and six,

we set sail from the sweet cove of Cork.

We were sailing away with a cargo of bricks

for the grand city hall in New York.

’Twas a wonderful craft, she was rigged fore-and-aft

and oh, how the wild winds drove her.

She’d got several blasts, she’d twenty-seven masts

and we called her the Irish Rover.

We had one million bales of the best Sligo rags

we had two million barrels of stones.

We had three million sides of old blind horses hides,

we had four million barrels of bones.

We had five million hogs, we had six million dogs,

seven million barrels of porter.

We had eight million bails of old nanny goats’ tails,

in the hold of the Irish Rover.

We had sailed seven years when the measles broke out

and the ship lost its way in a fog.

And that whale of the crew was reduced down to two,

just myself and the captain’s old dog.

Then the ship struck a rock, oh Lord what a shock

the bulkhead was turned right over.

Turned nine times around, and the poor dog was drowned

I’m the last of the Irish Rover.

How to explain Hausu? Sure, a bunch of high school friends get murdered in bizarre ways by a haunted house, but everything about it is so cheerful! There’s a fluffy kitty! A bear wearing a bow! Best friends Gorgeous and Fantasy who hold hands and skip and want to take baths together! (Okay, I ship them.) A lighthearted dance number! Even the violence is lighthearted and cartoonish–Melody laughs the whole time she’s being dismembered.

Obviously, I needed a bouncy, morbid song. And jetpack_monkey loves Celtic-infused folk/rock music. I’ve wanted to make a Final Destination franchise vid to a much punkier version of “The Irish Rover,” but Djazia Satour’s cover, with the people clapping and whooping in the background, fit Hausu much better. (It’s from a PC game called Jack the Ripper.)