HOUSEBOUND (Gerard Johnstone). 107 minutes. Rating: NNN
Where to watch: iTunes
The feature debut of New Zealand writer/director Gerard Johnstone is a highly eccentric horror comedy about an angry young woman named Kylie (Morgana O’Reilly) who finds herself under house arrest in her family home, which her mother (Rima Te Wiata) insists is haunted.
The genius of Housebound is it’s a horror film where the protagonist is too wrapped up in her own stuff to be scared. Johnstone creates a convincing genre world and then totally punctures it: Kylie is the sort of person who, when surprised by a creepy doll, will throw it across the room or set it on fire rather than scream.
She’s a marvellous character, and O’Reilly’s pissy, impatient performance never stops paying off, especially once the movie really starts digging into Kylie’s relationship with her mom. Te Wiata is also really good as her mother, finding a credible emotional level for someone who could easily have come off as a smothering nutter.
The mixture of slapstick and splatter recalls the earlier, funny films of Johnstone’s countryman Peter Jackson, though Johnstone doesn’t quite have the demented conviction that powered Jackson’s Bad Taste and Braindead to their delirious payoffs.
That said, there’s still plenty to enjoy about Housebound, especially with a crowd.
