Housebound is writer-director Gerard Johnstone's only feature film, but its unique tone has the confidence of an established, more experienced screenwriter

| Jan 12, 2021

O'Reilly is terrific as the sneery discontent at the centre of the madcap maelstrom, while Rima Te Wiata walks a wonderfully fine line between pathos and aggravation as the long-suffering/insufferable mum whose forced smile is about to crack.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 5, 2015

Housebound does ghosts in the walls with the same wacky panache as the recent Wyrmwood did Aussie zombies.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 2, 2015

Johnstone is one to watch.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 2, 2015

Housebound winningly sticks two fingers up to tired genre persuasions, effecting a barnstorming crowdpleaser populated by people you want to root for and tension you can chew. It's the stuff Friday nights at the movies were made for.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 2, 2015

First-time director Gerard Johnstone may not possess the wild visual invention of his patron Peter Jackson, but he's ruthlessly proficient at old-school scares.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 30, 2015

An extremely confident and promising debut.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 17, 2014

The mishmash that results is by turns creepy, silly, inventive, darkly funny and, at one point, mind-blowingly bloody.

| Oct 16, 2014

If Housebound is ultimately much more funny than scary, it's because O'Reilly's pugnacious performance runs so counter to the genre's usual treatment of women in peril.

| Original Score: B- | Oct 16, 2014

The score is suitably ominous with the requisite screeching strings and plinking piano, and the cinematography recalls early Sam Raimi.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 16, 2014

Hard to categorize -- horror-comedy? mystery-thriller? -- but lots of fun to watch.

| Oct 14, 2014

A welcome return to quirky Kiwi horror comedy with a juicy payoff.

| Oct 13, 2014

A marvelously entertaining combo of haunted-house thriller, murder mystery and domestic comedy, Housebound marks a mighty impressive feature bow for Kiwi scripter-helmer-editor Gerard Johnstone.

| Oct 13, 2014

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.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 12, 2014