Gerard Johnstone, the writer/director of the amazing new horror-thriller-comedy Housebound, is a good friend of mine and someone with whom I've spent countless hours discussing movies.
But you only need to glimpse the tidal wave of critical praise coming Housebound's way from all around the world to know that no personal bias is required to appreciate its considerable pleasures - this is the most exciting Kiwi film in decades.
Kylie Bucknell (Morgana O'Reilly) is an angry young woman sentenced to home detention in her childhood home. Her kooky mum Miriam (Rima Te Wiata) thinks the place is haunted but Kylie is having none of it - until things start to go bump in the night, and her eager probation officer Amos (Glen-Paul Waru) sniffs a ghost.
A witty delight from start to finish, Housebound casually subverts haunted house tropes and builds a genuine mystery. Although twists abound, there's no gimmickry - it's solid, moment-to-moment filmmaking. O'Reilly is spunky, Waru is hilarious and Te Wiata is a revelation. Broadcaster Wallace Chapman gives stellar deadpan support in a small role.
Weaving together laughs and thrills is one of cinema's toughest gambits, but Johnstone makes it seem effortless. That Housebound is playing so well to global audiences is testament to how deftly he has taken what is hilarious about New Zealand and amplified it on screen. This must be experienced in a cinema, if only to appreciate how well Johnstone can manipulate an audience.
