Housebound is a hilarious horror movie from New Zealand so if you like Taika Waititi’s brand of humor, you should enjoy Gerard Johnstone in his first directorial feature film. A woman gets caught committing a crime, and none of the usual rehabilitation programs worked so the court sentences her to house arrest in her childhood home, which forces her to deal with subconscious childhood trauma and confront the strange events that occur in her house.
Housebound does what The Intruders tried to do: juggle as many plausible explanations for as long as possible to keep the audience guessing while still mostly retaining its narrative credibility. The cast nimbly brings to life the characters and amplifies the humor that could have been left dead on the page. Morgana O’Reilly, who plays Kylie, the main character is pitch perfect as the hardened woman with a long rap sheet. What is it about New Zealand and Australian women that they seem to effortlessly adapt to highly physical action characters without resorting to the usual gimmicks to gain the audience’s favor?
Kylie is the kind of person who sees an obstacle then reacts physically and explosively to get it out of the way so being confined to stillness is frustrating. She has nothing but silent, steely contempt for most people that she interacts with so when she gets shaken and is forced to interact with people, her discomfort is palpable, and the house becomes a viable threat. Rima Te Wiata, who is probably best known for her role in Hunt for the Wilderpeople, plays Kylie’s mom, who is the complete opposite of her daughter, a talkative, mostly innocuous woman who does not like confrontation. Kylie must also contend with her still waters run deep, laconic step dad, her weird, vaguely sinister neighbor and the most understanding probation officer, Amos.
Explaining a joke is the surest way to kill it, but to truly enjoy Housebound, you have to give it your complete attention and watch everything. No multitasking during this movie or you’ll leave a lot of funny unmined for laughs. For example, Kylie uses the Lord’s name in vain, and then He appears in the kitschiest way possible. She engages in a futile smoke off, staring contest. There is no level unexplored for humor: physical, audio and narrative. There are some shout outs to Home Alone and The Shining.
Housebound is still a horror movie because there are consequences so it never feels like everything is going to be alright. There are stakes, and they are fairly high so the threat is never undercut by the humor, which is extremely tricky. The only time that the movie stagnates is when it briefly stops showing things from Kylie’s point of view or tries to make her an unreliable character. She is such a dynamic and credible person that the movie deflates when we stop following her. Also it seems ridiculous when certain characters begin to doubt her when they were the ones who started exploring the impossible. Kylie may have many flaws, but crazy is not an option.
When the source of the house’s disturbance is revealed, it becomes a poignant payoff into learning more about the characters’ relationships with themselves and each other. There were earlier attempts to draw psychological conclusions to create pat solutions to Kylie’s problems, but showing and not telling gets the real payoff. It is an emotionally resonant and textured moment that rehabilitates characters without being saccharine or cheesy. Housebound effectively makes fully developed characters, resolves issues without minimizing the past and finds off kilter ways to move forward without seeming insanely unrealistic.
I would recommend Housebound with only one caveat. A friend who loves Waititi and horror movies thought this movie was an incredible dud. I think that she was having an off day. This one is a must see.