Skip to main content

Review "Housebound" (2014) NZ

I know tons of people who outright hate horror movies and tons of those who dismiss them or never bother watching them. Well "Housebound" (2014) now on Netflix is one of those movies that shouldn't be dismissed. 

My advice is to stop reading this now - especially if you're the kind of person that easily discovers spoilers in non-spoiler reviews - and just go watch this work of art. But if you still need convincing, read on. 
Besides having some real creepy scares and a bit of "in your face" blood & gore (just a bit) this flick has a great story, a perfect plot, wonderful characters - including the main character - a hard case juvie that's given up on the world, a security guy who's a part-time paranormal investigator, and especially - well, I don't want to give away anything. Let's just say that every character has some great moments that make you smile, laugh out loud, or even cry - yes, cry!
Okay. Now quickly go rent or buy your copy of this flick and watch it!
Still not convinced? Without letting the cat out of the bag, this movie has such a great twist (a few actually) which really work naturally and comment on the the two worlds normally at odds in a horror movie - the straight Normal vs. the odd Other. As an Other myself, watching this forced me to admit that I can be as myopic as any Normal and I think that Normals will, after watching, find themselves sympathizing with Otherness and perhaps even get a glimpse on how both worlds simultaneously feed off and force each other into existence. Too deep? You don't have to look very deep in order to enjoy this flick - you can enjoy it as a fun and scary run through a carnival house of horrors (c'mon, I double dog dare ya) - but I love that you can look deeper and find solid motivation for every character. 
My highest recommendation. Three thumbs up. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Crosshatch practice - Edward S. Curtis "Big Head"

I decided to continue to practice crosshatching and I thought I photos by photographer Edward S. Curtis might be excellent thanks to the balance of light and dark and clear gradations in his works. The moment I saw the photo of Big Head (his name, original found here: http://m.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/04/native-americans-portraits-from-a-century-ago/100489/) I knew that he would be the perfect practice subject. I did a very quick layout with blue-pencil, added a few shading guides, and then jumped right in with a Tachikawa Finepoint System 0.1 and 0.4. I put emphasis on trying out techniques rather than slavish attention to detail. Even though I'm working on developing a more cartoonish style and don't intend to focus on realism, it was definitely an excellent way to practice drawing uniform lines and applying different combinations of patterns. I realize now that in some areas, I should have left the horizontal lines alone without crossing them with verticals. I'm goin...

October Exhibitions!

Yes! I have a busy October coming up! Besides starting a new class at the French School, I have two exhibitions and a special event that I'll be involved with. - SIMONETTA Exhibition - Mystery Exhibition - Tokyo Contents Market 2008 =========================================================================== What: SIMONETTA (translates as 'dirty jokes' or 'ribald humor') - group art exhibition When: Sun. October 5 to Sat. Oct. 11 (Gallery is closed Tue. Oct. 7) 12:00am to 7:00pm (Opening day from 2pm, Closing day until 5pm) +++I'll be there Sun., Oct. 5, and Thur. Oct. 9th+++ Where: Gallery Kopis http:// www.g- kopis. com/ (Japanese) 1-2-12-1 Shirakawa, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0021 ph:03-5639-2381 Who: It's a group show including ANAN, namy, and Tom Clouseau from the Movies Exhibition and also Hidemitsu Taya, Yukitoshi Kono, Black Kuma-san, who I've done shows with before and others I haven't. There will be some neato stuff golly for sure! I'll have p...

Gappa & Guma charity picture book

Kumamoto Earthquake Picture Book Project Here are the details for the crowdfunding project as it is running currently here:  https://kumamoto.dreamraising.jp/pr… /kumamoto_pictures-book/ . The book: The picture book is about a kappa (river faerie) named Gappa that lives under a bridge on the banks of a river in a town in Kumamoto (based on Mifune where I live). She likes swimming, fishing, and making music. One day, a terrible earthquake hits and Gappa is forced to abandon her home. She leaves on an adventure where she finds friendship, inner strength, and a purpose. She is faced with scary situations, but each time she remembers something that her Granny Babappa told her long ago and it helps her overcome her fear. During her adventure, she meets Guma, a big brown bear (actually a mountain faerie) who lives in the mountains and they spread Granny Babappa’s wisdom to the kids who need it most. The main idea of the story is to give kids something to help them overcome th...