Dem Japanese been weirdos for a long time. Gotta wonder if the bombs caused them to develop wild fukkery. I still trip out over that umbrella Yokai monster.
It's genuinely one of the strangest experiences I've had viewing anything. The premise is easy enough to follow (the House is eating the people), but everything that happens is weird AF. Like, wtf is going on with the watermelon dude and the teacher that randomly turns into bananas
But I kinda get the cult status of everything. It has a bit of Evil Dead, some Giallo coloration, and a ton of humor.
Some backstory: I did some looking into the creation of it, and I really like the story behind the movie's creation. The dude that put it together based a bunch of the plot on ideas from his nine year old daughter (makes sense). None of the directors for the production company would touch the script, but this dude kept pushing to get it made. So two years pass with nothing happening, and the brass at the company are looking at a series of flops. They go "whatever we think should work flops...let's just let this guy make his movie we're sure will flop and see if the opposite happens again."
So, since none of the company directors would touch it (they thought it'd ruin their careers), the company just let's the writer double as director. He ASKS for the gaudy/bad effects to add to the "this is child's fever-dream" vibes. No one thinks the movie will succeed, critics TRASH it...and it becomes a success with the public audience anyway. Critics start to show love for it as the years pass, and when it finally gets an American release in the 00's, it gets even more love.
And now we have a cult-classic. Honestly, I think the history of the movie is better than the film itself.