Toronto After Dark’s First Film: Housebound

You know these tropes. It starts with a failed heist, but instead of the normal prison our protagonist, Kylie, gets sentenced to eight months of home arrest – at her mother’s house. Housebound, one might say. This is not a Hallmark mother-daughter relationship. Nor does Kylie get along with her almost silent step-father. Add a creepy neighbour, a secret history to the house, and a hovering mother Miriam, who both natters on and believes the house is haunted, and we all know where this is going.

Not your normally family portrait for not your normal horror film.

While delivering some jump scares, Housebound starts as an atmospheric film, with the decrepit house itself as a main character. The first few weeks of her return Kylie takes over the living room, eats all the food, and leaves behind only dirty dishes. Basically she turns back into the sullen teen who was in such a rush to leave the town too small for a B’n’B, her mother’s dream for the large residence.

But sleepless nights and an eerie childhood toy start to have her wondering.

Then we meet Amos, who monitors Kylie’s tracking anklet, and who happens to be a ghost hunter on the side. This is just the first sign that this film is far more than it first appeared.

Housebound is the first feature for writer/director/editor Gerard Johnstone and he sent a video shout out to the opening night crowd, starting with “This is my accent, you’ll hear a lot of it over the next few hours.” He praised Toronto After Dark saying his film doesn’t have zombies or werewolves, “but you can see them later in the festival”. This self-awareness and self-deprecation mirrored the balance he brought to the feature, where there were no wasted scenes and some fun camera angles. It also was the first film chosen by TADFF’s selection committee as it was a unanimous choice.

Great news – this New Zealand feature has been picked up for Canadian distribution by Anchor Bay and Raven Banner, which means that you’ll soon get a chance to see it too!