Housebound, 2014.
Directed by Gerard Johnstone.
Starring Morgana O’Reilly, Rima Te Wiata and Glen-Paul Waru.
SYNOPSIS:
After being placed under house-arrest due to a string of misbehaviour, troubled teenager Kylie begins to suspect that she may be sharing her home with a supernatural presence.
Anything can happen once, twice could be a coincidence, but three times is officially a pattern. If this logic holds true then we’re one more New Zealand-based horror-comedy away from a very high quality pattern after What We Do In The Shadows and now Housebound from writer-director Gerard Johnstone. New Zealand does of course have a pretty rich history of horror (Peter Jackson for instance) but it has been several years since films of this quality have emerged almost simultaneously. Horror-comedies usually fall into two camps: ones which ape the B-movie aesthetic of previous decades; reveling in their intentionally-wooden dialogue, superfluous nudity and cigarette burns, or ones which derive their comedy from absurdity; ludicrous antagonists and self-aware dialogue. There’s a good reason for this (besides the obvious one being that they’re easier to market), and that’s because the other kinds of horror-comedy are incredibly hard to do well. Putting laughs into their script can defuse any tension a director just built so there’s not much incentive to explore this area of the genre. It’s harder still to balance horror, humour and empathy, all while keeping your characters from becoming obnoxious and not having an audience root for their deaths. It’s therefore somewhat of an unmitigated joy to watch as Housebound deftly balances these aspects, when even one is an achievement.
Following in the wake of a botched burglary on an ATM Kylie (Morgana O’Reilly) is placed under house arrest, forced to share her space with doting mum Miriam (Rima Te Wiata) and laconical step-father Graeme (Ross Harper). It’s not long after settling back in that Kylie begins to notice suspicious activity all throughout the house and begins to suspect that her mother’s concerns about a malevolent spirit may have some truth to them. When Kylie tells her probation officer Amos (Glen Paul-Waru) about these suspicions he switches seamlessly into a ghost-hunter (free of charge – proof of paranormal activity is payment enough) and the hunt begins. Housebound lays out its style of naturalistic humour within the first ten minutes, one which is sharp without feeling artificial and warm without being saccharine. It’s another common occurrence in modern horror films to have an excellent central performance only for them to be surrounded by people not capable of rising to their level. This can be due to lack of screentime or generally underwritten parts, but the result is often the same: put supporting roles within vicinity of the (usually female) lead and they come undone. Gerard Johnstone, however, deserves an immense amount of credit for investing all his characters with voices that are distinct and believable, and after listening to Kylie’s mum gush over all the high-tech gadgetry she’s got strapped to her ankle it’s clear that any of these characters are capable of owning a scene.
Kylie herself is played brilliantly by Morgana O’Reilly, who pretty much deserves to be a star for this role alone. The arc of tough girl eventually showing vulnerability is common, but it’s not one Kylie subscribes to; instead she takes an anger accumulated over a lifetime and uses it to take action, punching any threat within reach and easily earning an audience’s admiration. Glen Paul-Waru’s probation officer Amos is also perfectly written and played. The expectation is this person would be nothing but antagonistic towards Kylie, but as soon as Amos retrieves his dictaphone and begins questioning spirits he becomes a loveable and goofy accomplice in Kylie’s schemes. This relationship between Kylie and Amos is perhaps the film’s heart as they semi-bond over the paranormal and become an investigative duo. Miriam is the apotheosis of all mothers – a role that seems less like it was written and more like she was brought in to provide her honest reaction as events unfold. Rima Te Wiata claims her fair share of audience sympathy as a mother disappointed with the frustration she feels for her daughter’s aimlessness, but does so with unconditional love. It’s quite easy to imagine watching another film with this cast of characters as their personalities all feel earned from experiences outside of what we see in Housebound.
Events takes place primarily in and around the Bucknell household but Johnstone keeps things rolling with accomplished direction and a well-defined sense of space. The pacing of the third act might however be the film’s weakest point as we take numerous twists and turns until it feels as if an ending was due a few minutes ago. This is also when the film stretches its credulity the farthest, although it never quite breaks thanks to the solid foundations built by the preceding two thirds. To say any more regarding the plot would dampen some of the fun of discovery, suffice to say Johnstone favours propulsion in terms of story. The darker elements of the film are also handled equally as well as its funnier ones with the usual array of scares expected from a film taking place in a seemingly haunted house, accompanied by enough flourishes of brutality to make physical harm an ever-present threat. Visually it stands toe-to-toe with anything to come out of America in recent years, but accompanied by the additional dignity that comes with restraint. Housebound is brilliant – accomplished in humour, accomplished in horror and deserves to be a cult classic.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
John Lucking
Originally published October 9, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
