In a Nutshell. Mini reviews of movies old and new. No fuss. No spoilers. And often no sleep.

Tuesday 3 February 2015

HOUSEBOUND [2014]

It's not often horror/comedies manage to effectively balance both genres to great effect but somehow writer/director Gerard Johnstone's feature length debut, Housebound, packs in the scares and laughs with great success.
Neighbors' Morgana O'Reilly plays an angry young woman put on house arrest at her mom's in the New Zealand countryside where she discovers there's many secrets to be revealed within the walls of the creepy old home.  It smugly inserts all the usual haunted house tropes then punches them square in the jaw with a hearty laugh and a sincere apology to keep it from becoming stale.  It's claustrophobic dizzy setting keeps the viewer on edge, so quite often you'll find your laughter is more nervous than humored which makes for a helluva good time.

3½ creepy-ass Teddy Ruxpins out of 5

1 comment:

Dr Faustus said...

"…and the winner of shittiest poster art in a year of shitty films goes to Housebound."