Housebound (2014)

Eight weeks into the year means it’s time for the eighth installment in our A-To-Z challenge. This week, the letter “H” has us stuck at home with Housebound (2014).

Title: Housebound

Director: Gerard Johnstone

Released: March 10, 2014

Runtime: 1 hour 47 minutes

Available to stream on: Shudder

IMDb synopsis: A young woman is forced to return to her childhood home after being placed under house arrest, where she suspects that something evil may be lurking.

Kylie (Morgana O’Reilly) is a bit of a wild child. When we first are introduced to her, she’s attempting to break into an ATM. After failing with a sledgehammer, Kylie resorts to explosives and gets the machine open. Managing to get back to her car, she starts to tear out of the parking lot as the sound of police sirens continues to close in only to be stopped by…a speedbump.

While she’s in court, we learn that Kylie has been in and out of multiple facilities. So, instead of having history repeat itself again, Kylie’s punishment this time is eight months on house arrest in her mother, Miriam’s (Rima Te Wiata), home. The security officer, Amos (Glen-Paul Waru), in charge of monitoring Kylie’s location informs Kylie that if she goes outside of the perimeter or tampers with the bracelet, that he’ll be notified along with the police.

Kylie, in an attempt to kill boredom, turns on the radio only to hear her mother’s voice calling into a paranormal show claiming that her home is haunted. Kylie confronts her mother and ridicules her for believing there are ghosts in the house. Miriam reminds her that she once believed the house was haunted as well. Kylie doesn’t miss a beat in reminding her mother that she was a child when she believed such things.

However, after multiple unexplained instances, Kylie begins to believe that maybe her mother is right. Luckily, Amos just happens to be an amateur ghost hunter. He brings his equipment over and performs his investigation and also believes that something is in the house with them. Upon learning the history of the house, Kylie is left with more questions than answers.

What is causing the disturbances?

Can it really be a ghost?

Could the history of the house help explain any of this?

How is she going to survive the next seven months trapped in the house?

Housebound (2014) was a surprisingly fun time. There are a lot of horror comedies that will lean too far into one genre however, Gerard Johnstone, who wrote and directed, manages to perfectly balance both, and in ways that you might not always expect.

The cinematography and set design are particularly effective. You feel like you are trapped in this house that is filled with decades of knickknacks and clutter. Trying to navigate through the parts of the home feel like you’re trying to navigate a maze in the cornfields. Consequently, the way that shadows are used makes you second guess what you see on the screen. Was that a shadow of the clutter in the room? Or was there movement over there?

From a comedic standpoint, Housebound is quite clever in how the comedy is used and portrayed. Yes, there is some dark humor sprinkled in. However, the majority of the humor is situational. For as wild as a situation might be, it always manages to remain practical and slightly terrifying at the same time. The humor itself never takes you out of the movie. And for that, it gets extra kudos.

I know I’ve said a lot without really saying anything, but this is one of those where if you haven’t seen it already, less is more. If you enjoyed M3GAN, well come check out the director/writer’s feature debut. You won’t be disappointed. And if you’re like me, seeing Housebound (2014) for the first time has made me more interested in checking out M3GAN.

So, for those of you who have seen Housebound (2014), what did you think? Does the horror comedy genre work for you? Tell me all of your thoughts about it in the comments below or by interacting with me across social media!

Meanwhile, it’s that time again. If you’ve got suggestions for what the movie should be for the letter “I”, get them in before Wednesday. Wednesday evening I’ll reveal the “I” movie across social media.