Housebound (2014/XLrator Media Blu-ray)

Picture: B+ Sound: B+ Extras: C- Film: B+

Gerard Johnstone's Housebound (2014) caught me by surprise as being a relatively fresh ghost story with equal amounts of story and scares. The characters are very well developed and the production aspect of the filmmaking is not too shabby either. Shot in New Zealand, the film is all about Kylie (Morgana O'Reilly) who is a would-be thief that is sentenced to nine months of house arrest after she's caught trying to rob a bank in an impressive opening sequence. She's forced to move back in with her well-meaning mother Miriam (Rima Te Wiata), much to Kylie's disdain who still treats her like a child. When she sees something weird, Kylie thinks little of her mother's claims that the house is haunted but is later horrified when strange things seem to happen around the house, prompting Kylie to begin to believe that her mother may just be right.

Her attempts to try to tell people that they may have a malevolent spirit in the house is met with surprising cheer, as they seem to think that having a ghost around would be a good thing. They soon discover that the house has a shocking past and along with the help of an unlikely ally in Amos (Glen-Paul Waru), the security officer in charge of monitoring her ankle bracelet who also turns out to be an amateur ghost buster. Kylie's court-ordered sessions with a condescending and infantilizing counselor (Cameron Rhodes) don't go well. Amos and Kylie start an investigation, focusing first on the house itself, before narrowing their lens onto the weird next-door neighbor with the straggly beard and the recluse habits of skinning animals and hanging them out on his laundry lines (Mick Innes).

Some of the film's scariest sequences have to do with Kylie sneaking around in places she shouldn't be. She is a fearless burglar, with lots of practice. Amos is reduced to standing on the sidelines, watching helplessly through binoculars. O'Reilly is great as the classic misfit, angry and antisocial, contemptuous of her mum, before events start to dovetail, bonding them together. Kylie's situation is exacerbated by the fact that even if she wanted to flee from the house to save her life, her ankle monitor would go off, and she would be hauled back to meet her doom.

There are a couple of standout sequences, one involving a talking teddy-bear that gets burned and stills comes back and one involving a group brawl where people fight one another using the objects closest to hand: an egg whisk, a cheese grater, a laundry hamper. These scenes shine with humor and invention and are believable in the world of the film. All in all, Housebound is definitely worth a watch if you are a fan of Horror/Comedies or are just looking for a new scary movie to watch. The transfer of the film is sharp and nearly flawless with a 1080p anamorphic widescreen image and a powerful English DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio lossless mix that will make you jump during the scary parts. Subtitles are also on the disc in English SDH.

The extras are lacking in only offering Deleted Scenes and a feature-length Audio Commentary by the Filmmakers of Housebound.

- James Harland Lockhart V

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