Housebound
New Zealand comedy-horror is a great sentence. Housebound knows that by playing up to the accents and normality of New Zealand lives, like watching Coronation Street every Friday night. The poor buggers. Kylie Bucknell (played by Morgana O’Reilly) is forced to move back home with her parents under house arrest. Kylie hates it at home. She starts to act like a rebellious teenager in the home, causing conflict between her and her lovely, well-intentioned mother.
That is, until one night, Miriam (Rima Te Wiata) lets slip that she believes the house to be haunted. Afterwards Kylie begins to the hear the strange similarities that her mother did, but cannot decide if it is her imagination or a real threat. Housebound plays around entirely with the subgenre, subverting the norm wherever it can. It plays up the age or era it is even set in, teasing an iPhone, while having the horrid Motorola ringtone from the Razr play in a creepy beckoning to the past.
All the characters are wonderful, especially Amos (Glen-Paul Waru) who has a moment that cleverly subverts and is a great introduction to the character’s life. Housebound is half scary and half-fun, creating a thrilling ride that will have real guffaws in moments you do not expect.
