Available now on DVD is the horror flick Housebound. It stars Morgana O’Reilly, Rima Te Wiata and Glen-Paul Waru, who are pretty much unknown here in the states. I believe they are from New Zealand.
Housebound is the story about a young woman named Kylie who is down on her luck and resorting to a life of crime. After one failed attempt to break into and ATM and escape from the Police she is captured. Instead of doing time in jail she is put under house arrest – at her mom’s house.
Kylie is escorted back to her mother’s creepy old house in the middle of nowhere. She is fitted with tracking device on her leg which won’t allow her to go too far from the inside of the house.
Even though Kylie has done some bad things over the years Kylie’s mom is still kind to her. She even tells Kylie that she believes her house is haunted. Kylie thinks her mother is crazy – that is until weird things start happening to her.
Kylie tries to explain to people that weird things are happening but they attribute it to her past substance abuse. No one believes her except her chatty mother and a local security guard who happens to dabble in the paranormal. With his help she tries to solve the mystery as to who – or what – is haunting her house before it’s too late.
Is the house truly haunted or has Kylie inherited a bit of craziness from her mother? To find out you need to pick up a copy of Housebound, now available where most movies are sold.
This is dubbed a horror/comedy flick. For some people it would be considered horror. A true horror fan (like myself) would be disappointed if they were expecting edge-of-your-seat horror scenes. I will say that there were many twists and turns in the story and although I wasn’t scared I know my teenage daughter (also a horror fan) jumped a few times and even closed her eyes.
I would consider this more of a suspenseful film because you have no clue what is going to happen from one day to the next.
There is a bit of gore too and it’s a “dark” film.
This is actually a comedy too. Horror/Comedy films are not new. They have been around for years. Movies like Shaun of the Dead, Gremlins, Return of the Dead and Slither are both horror and comedy films (there are more but these are ones that came to mind).
Housebound is funny, but not laugh out loud funny (except for a few parts). It’s more of a dark, sick, weird humor. It works well with this film. That is why I don’t consider this a true horror film. A real horror movie would not be funny. At least in my eyes.
The film started out kind of slow, and does drag in some spots, but once the action picks up the movie has a lot of twists, turns and surprises (things you wouldn’t expect). If there was one thing about this movie, it was NOT predictable.
I wasn’t sure if I was going to truly love this film or not. In the beginning I was leaning more towards not liking the film but by the end I did enjoy it. I would certainly watch it again. It was entertaining and even had me jump a few times which is not easy to do for a die hard horror fan.
Look for Housebound where ever movies are sold.
Here is the film’s trailer for your enjoyment.
Kimberly
*I received a free screener copy in order to do this review. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own and not influenced in any way.
