REVIEW: Housebound

Housebound is an odd choice for me, simply because I haven't heard anything about it before I spotted it amongst the recent additions on Netflix. The plot synopsis caught my attention (as well as the fairly high user rating) and I decided I'd give it a watch. This was an impulse viewing that I don't regret in the slightest. Released at last year's SXSW festival, Housebound is an indie horror/comedy out of New Zealand about a troubled young woman named Kylie (Morgana O'Reilly). After a petty robbery goes south, she is sentenced to house arrest and confined to her childhood home alongside the company of her folksy, estranged mother (Rima Te Wiata) and stepfather (Ross Harper). However, after Kylie returns home, odd occurrences lead her to believe that the house is haunted by a vengeful spirit.

That may sound like a fairly pedestrian haunted house plot, and for the first half or so of the film, it is. That said, the story definitely takes some interesting turns as the plot progresses. One of the facets that I found particularly fascinating is that, by the midway point, basically all of the main cast accepts that the house is haunted. There's no decrying the creepy events that take place as swamp gas or a renegade weather balloon here; they accept that a ghost is behind it and then go about attempting to solve the problem. It can be pretty simple to make a horror/comedy; simply tell a basic ghost story, but have funny things happen instead of scary things. Had Homebound taken the easy way out in such a fashion, the final result would't be nearly as strong as it is. This is a film that takes the time to think outside the box and subvert your expectations on a few occasions over the course of its roughly 107-minute runtime. The comedy at play here feels more akin to the jokes in a movie like Scream or Army of Darkness; the humor isn't derived so much from actual "jokes", but more from the actors' delivery or the situation they're placed in. It's a subtle kind of comedy, but I still found myself laughing out loud a few times here and there. Despite all the humor, it works as a really excellent horror film as well. Sending your character into a dark, musty basement by themselves at night is a bit of an easy environment to generate scares in, but the picture does a great job of generating suspense and tense moments. This is Gerard Johnstone's directorial debut; I believe he could really make something chilling if he decided to make a straight-up horror flick, since he clearly understands how the genre works.

All that said, it's not without its flaws. Despite a strong script being delivered by an equally strong cast, the film feels a good deal longer than it really is. It doesn't flow that well for the most part and it feels like there was trouble when it came to deciding when a scene should end. While it is quite funny, the laughs are somewhat inconsistent; instead of feeling like a mix of horror and comedy, each scene feels like it's going to be either one or the other, and it's not until the climax (which was the highlight of the film for me) that things really start to work like a well-oiled machine. The characters are all enjoyable to watch (I particularly enjoyed Glen-Paul Waru as Amos, a security technician/amateur ghost hunter), but I really feel as though the more serious character moments could have been handled better (though there are two notable exceptions that come to mind; one involving Kylie and her stepfather, the other coming into play during the climax). All in all, it's a little rough around the edges, but when it gets it right, it gets it outstandingly right.

Housebound is an intriguing piece of work and a fine start for a new director (whom I really hope to see more from, especially if it falls into the horror genre). It manages to accomplish its goals as both a horror film, a comedy, and a film in general, though some facets of the final product could have used a bit of fine-tuning. Apparently it was recently announced that New Line Cinema is planning a localized American remake; this is a practice I'm normally not in favor of (especially in a case such as this, where the entire cast is speaking English throughout), but perhaps a second-time around will iron out some of the creases that keep this good film from becoming a great film.