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Housebound is becoming a cult classic, but it will probably never achieve a wide audience. Made in New Zealand on a low budget with a cast of no small talent, the main problem is that the movie jumps from genre to genre—which is okay—but it does so largely in large lumps.
The movie opens with crime comedy. As Kylie Bucknell (Morgana O’Reilly) goes through one disaster after another while trying to rob an ATM with building frustration, it’s hilarious, but then the comedy crime ends, and we get a horror movie instead.
Kylie is put under house arrest at her mum’s place. Her mother, Miriam Bucknell (Rima Te Wiata), is vapid, has low intelligence, and is convinced that the old place is haunted. Mind you, maybe she’s right. Certainly the security guard, Amos (Glen-Paul Waru), thinks so, and he seems to have some experience in this field.
But then the film suddenly loses its supernatural element, and it becomes a detective story. Kylie Bucknell is supposed to be kept in her house by her ankle monitor—as she has been the whole movie—but now she can investigate the neighbor’s house and yard without anyone noticing, and no one cares if she wanders all the way to the police station. Well, not the cops at any rate.
Kylie and her security guard friend, Amos, are lousy detectives. But don’t worry—the detective story soon gives way to a thriller. And we finally get a small touch of a family comedy that’s offered but never developed.
This could have worked if the genres had been blended rather than left in their own little lumps. Too many unresolved bits are left behind because the movie’s going through another one of its phases. And I’d like to see more than loose ends that just dangle there forever in the movie-making ether.
What does work in this movie, however, is the acting. There isn’t a bad job done. Rima Te Wiata is excellent as the mom. Morgana O’Reilly went on to do work on Neighbours—undoubtedly as something adorable, as everything (with two exceptions per decade) is or becomes that on prime-time soaps. But here she does a good job of being uncaring and angry for most of the movie.
Ryan Lampp does well as Eugene, a part that would have been easy to spoil. He manages to put a lot of nuance into the little room he’s given. Glen-Paul Waru also does well as Amos, keeping a surprisingly consistent performance as the film’s comic relief. Ross Harper plays a constantly confused Graeme, the guy who fixes things that constantly break down in the house. Cameron Rhodes is Dennis, Kylie’s social worker, who always seems to have another theory about what she should do next—though it never works.
But those good performances have too little to ride on. This may explain why the movie won both Best Horror Film and Best Comedy at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival in 2014: nobody else knew what it really was, either.
If you want character, then Housebound is a good choice. If you like a story to hang together, then this one is probably not for you. But at least it kept me watching. You can always have a look for yourself; you can find it on both Netflix and YouTube.
