Before his M3gan fame, Gerard Johnstone directed a darkly hilarious film called Housebound in 2014. A low-budget debut, it didn’t garner much fame, but it deserves as much (if not more!) acclaim as his later projects.
Discussing the film with chud.com, Johnstone elaborates on the process, describing a “near nervous breakdown” and a budget of just $250,000 (beware, the last interview question is a huge spoiler). He also cites inspiration from Hitchcock films as well as classics like Poltergeist and The Changeling.
When Kylie ends up in front of a judge again, he declares she needs “stability” and sentences her to eight months of house arrest in her childhood home in rural New Zealand. This is a problem for a few reasons – not least of which is that her mother is convinced that the house is haunted.
As Kylie lazes around feeling sorry for herself and ignoring her smarmily positive court-ordered therapist, she experiences classic paranormal phenomena like disembodied footsteps. A hand even reaches out to grab her ankle from under a cupboard, at which point her bolt from the house makes her ankle monitor ping.
Amos, the bumbling but sincere security guy in charge of the device, turns out to be a bit of a ghosthound, and together with Kylie and her mom, he helps uncover the house’s sordid past. Previously a halfway house for troubled youth, the place was shuttered when a girl – who bears more than a passing resemblance to Kylie – was killed. A creepy nextdoor neighbor whose yard smells like rotting meat is the obvious suspect, but he denies any wrongdoing and tells the story of his odd stepson who disappeared many years ago…right around the time of the murder.
Solving the mystery becomes Kylie’s only mission, as she becomes more and more convinced that whatever the entity in the house is, it means her harm.
All the characters, from surly Kylie to her well-meaning and fussy mother, are likeable and three-dimensional in a genre prone to cardboard cutouts. Through a different lens, the film could be a family drama. There’s even a painfully awkward scene where Kylie’s stepfather attempts to bond with her that somehow makes for a charming interlude. No one is purely good or evil, and we see organic growth from all the characters – difficult to achieve in such a short film.
The film moves at a good clip, and by the end, audiences have whiplash from all the twists. We get pleasantly tormented by some good jump scares (the obligatory fake one involves a Jesus statue, creating a fun juxtaposition). There’s real suspense and a spooky atmosphere. The kills are pleasantly gross without going grindhouse and generally quite hilarious.
Horror enthusiasts will enjoy this break from bloated franchises and constant remakes (Housebound stands alone, with no prequels, sequels, or material it’s adapted from), and thriller fans will enjoy the dark and twisty plot. Even drama and comedy watchers should be entertained – if they don’t scare too easy.
Housebound is a genuine delight. Managing to be both a horror film and a comedy, without sacrificing either element, it’s refreshingly original. The film is funny in its own right, without leaning on self-awareness or meta jokes. It isn’t pure gory, stupid fun either – several of the lines are so dryly witty and perfectly comedically timed that you’ll laugh aloud.