Housebound

Housebound is that rare film that manages to be funny without defusing any of its scares.

Separating Housebound from most films of its type is super-smart plotting and confident tonal control, as Johnstone’s screenplay throws one terrific curve ball after another and never allows its goofy humor to compromise its genuinely scary components.

Gerard Johnstone, a first-time writer-director from New Zealand, demonstrates a sly command of deadpan humor along with an assured grasp of seasoned horror tropes.

Housebound is a standout, though, because of its satirical mood and its multiple scenes of almost screwball comedy.

The mishmash that results is by turns creepy, silly, inventive, darkly funny and, at one point, mind-blowingly bloody. Still, some smart streamlining would have sharpened the focus and amped up the power of this well-shot and edited spookfest.

A clever and claustrophobic thriller that will trip you up and leave you with a wicked, blood-stained grin.

You grow to feel as if you're arbitrarily changing the channel back and forth from a diverting horror film to a promising odd-couple comedy.

If you love suspenseful horror movies. Do yourself a favor. Don't read anything else about this movie. Just go watch it now and don't spoil the fun. The story is extremely well written, the movie is very well executed and all of the cast do a phenomenal job of their roles.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Housebound starts strong with a genuinely intriguing mystery and a creepy “what is actually happening here?” atmosphere. The first half has a nice balance of tension and weirdness, and it keeps you curious enough to stay locked in. There’s a fun setup here, and the film clearly knows how to build small moments of unease without overdoing **** somewhere in the final stretch, the movie changes lanes hard into dark comedy territory. If you’re fully onboard with the tonal switch, it probably works much better. For me, it weakened the mystery instead of elevating it. The last half hour especially feels bloated, like the film could have used a sharper edit and trimmed some repetitive chaos. Instead of tightening the suspense screws, it starts spinning in circles like a haunted **** acting is serviceable but never memorable, and visually the movie feels surprisingly flat for a horror-comedy set almost entirely inside one house. No standout cinematography, no especially memorable characters, and no scene that really sticks after the credits roll. There’s an interesting idea buried in the walls here, but the execution never fully possesses the house.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

I'm not a fan of this kind of movies, and it was so predictable what will happened.