Housebound
Year: 2014
imdb rating: 6.8
Director: Gerard Johnstone
A young woman is forced to return to her childhood home after being placed under house arrest, where she suspects that something evil may be lurking.
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Housebound: review
**Under house arrest in a haunted house!**
Absolutely a kick-ass horror-comedy from the Kiwi. In a horror, usually we expect too much, particularly we calculate them according to how much it scares us. That's a tough job for the filmmaker, but when the comedy tag was attached to it which makes even tougher. In this kind of theme, very rarely people say they're satisfied enough and this is one of those. Yep, a surprise film written and directed by a newcomer. Since it is a New Zealand film, I don't anybody from it, but they all were excellent. Particularly the lead woman was unbelievably good, totally loved her, kind of reminds Nia Vardalos of 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' fame and her expressions too matches for in this film.
The story was familiar, even some part of it can be compared to the recent film 'The Boy'. Likewise, other pieces from different films, but I did not care, because it still looked fresh of its own. The way it was developed contributed to the film's success and those suspense lived up to the hype that were made in the early stage of narration. The woman who won't get scared easily, finally meets her ultimate fear after returning to her mother's house where she grew up. But only to discover the house is haunted, followed by mysterious events and the final confrontation between her and whoever on the opposite.
Great setting with the awesome performances, and always keeps us on the edge. But the laughs were delivered in the form of black comedy. The twists and turns make the film to flip to the opposite side after reaching at one point of the narration leaving the viewers to judge how strongly it linked to its genre. But I don't think most of them care about that since they're already entertained and only going to witness the final thrilling conclusion. I hope there won't be any follow up, because this one-off film was one of the best from the down under, so I don't want it to be ruined, like they do in the Hollywood. Recommended, you will enjoy it even your rating does not meet what I've given.
_7/10_