Sunday, September 6, 2015

Shocktoberfest 2015 Housebound (Gerard Johnstone, 2014)

2014 was a great year for New Zealand horror!  Two Kiwi films from that year, Gerard Johnstone's first feature length, claustrophobic, comedy/thriller Housebound and the mockumentary vampire film What We Do In The Shadows both figure prominently on Mark Hofmeyer's The Top 21 Horror Films of the 21st Century!

I watched Housebound on Netflix and had a great time with it.  The film paces itself well while dissecting the inner workings of a dysfunctional family attempting to reintegrate their prodigal daughter while living in an apparently haunted house.  Morgana O'Reilly shows great prowess as Kylie who swings between royally pissed off daughter who is forced to return home and seeming victim of a malevolent force that just wants to help.

I should also mention that it is a screwy-screwball comedy with bumps, jumps, pratfall and plenty of hilarious one-liners!


While lacking any touching or sentimental moments, Housebound packs in plenty of laughs, thrills and genuinely scary moments plus an appropriate amount of  gore.

And to top it off, there is this song at the end: 


Click here to see the list of movies I am shooting to watch between now and the Halloween. Make sure to check out the original article at Movies, Film and Flix !

2 comments:

Bob Johns said...

I really got a kick out of this movie. Still need to check out What we do in the Shadows that movie looks bonkers!!

mwilliams1220 said...

Yes, I agree. I got distracted by the [REC] movies but I am looking forward to WWDITS soon.