October 31st, 2014 
James Shotwell 
Of all the holidays celebrated worldwide, no single day is more loved by the UTG staff than Halloween. With the arrival of the year’s best month, the time has finally come to begin rolling out a plethora of features and special announcements we have prepared in celebration of our favorite day, including the one you’re about to read.
Now in its third year, 31 Days Of Halloween is a recurring feature that will run throughout the month of October. The hope and goal of this column is to supply every UTG reader with a daily horror (or Halloween-themed) movie recommendation that is guaranteed to amplify your All Hallows’ Eve festivities. We’ll be watching every film the day it’s featured, and we hope you’ll follow along at home.
[Warning: the material within is positively NSFW]
Day 31: Housebound (2014)
Before I get to the film I have chosen to highlight it only feels right to thank you for spending another year celebrating the greatest horror films with all of us here at UTG. We look forward to this series every single year, and there is always a little fear in the back of our minds that readers will not want to hear more about our deep fascination with all things horror. You have proven those fears to be nonsense three years running, and we hope you will come back next October to do it all over again.
Today is Halloween, which means we have reached the end of this journey we began at the very beginning of the month. I chose five films to highlight in this series at the start of September, but as October began I realized my selections were no longer the films I felt compelled to share with readers. After two years of digging into the most distributing and bizarre titles I had ever witnessed in order to create great content I had a desire to highlight the flicks that made me laugh as much as they made me scream. I made a last-minute decision to change all but one of my film choices (Street Trash), and looking back now I still stand by my initial decision. Creating a great horror comedy combination is as difficult, if not harder, than creating a genuinely terrifying piece of cinema. It’s a miracle if one good horror comedy comes out each year, and it’s as rare as Haley’s Comet for more than one to debut in that same time frame. I spent the last few weeks hoping 2014 would provide one truly fantastic film that I could highlight in this series of scary comedies, and earlier this week the movie I was waiting for came to my attention with a little help from iTunes.
Housebound is a new film from New Zealand that continues the trend of original film ideas that was pioneered by movies like Bad Taste or Dead Alive. Kylie, a twenty-something female with a criminal past, is forced to return to the home where she grew up when a judge sentences her to house arrest. As if this were not punishment enough, Kylie is forced to live with her mother Miriam – a loving blabbermouth of a woman who is convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that someone or something is haunting her home. Being the non-believer that she is, Kylie initially dismisses her mother’s fears, but shortly after getting settled she begins to notice several unexplainable occurrences that lead her to believe dear old Mom might not be as crazy as she seems.
I’ll be the first to admit that the premise of Housebound is far from being the most original idea presented on screen in 2014. There are countless movies about people entering a home believed to be haunted who then deny the existence of spirits in said home until later realizing there is, in fact, something else inhabiting their dwelling. What sets Housebound apart, aside from the plot point regarding Kylie’s house arrest, are the numerous ways the film presents the entity(s) that haunt the Bucknell family home. Miriam, for instance, swears she has seen the presence of a person in a sheet. Kylie, on the other hand, spends an evening (and following morning) battling a psychopathic teddy bear that only utters disturbing phrases. The diversity on display keeps you, as a viewer, guessing as to the origin and intent of the haunting, which makes the whole affair even more enjoyable.
There is a part of me that wants to write at length about the various gags and scares found in Housebound, but to do so would be to ruin what could potentially be one of the most enjoyable viewing experiences of the year. This film would succeed on the strength of its script alone, but it also boasts a brilliant comedic cast and cinematography that is on par with any studio effort produced stateside. It’s one of those rare instances when everything seems to come together just the right way, and to take away your ability to experience it without knowing what unfolds would be a crime against fellow cinema fans. Just know that you will be on the edge of your seat for much of the film’s runtime, and even when you think you’ve figured out the secret behind the disturbances you will probably be wrong. Don’t try and beat the film to its climax, just kick back and enjoy the ride. This is the kind of journey you will want to take again and again.
Taking a risk with entertainment is something no one concerned with money can afford these days, but believe me when I say there is no better way to invest your Halloween dollar this season than with a rental of Housebound. It will make your holiday more enjoyable and may even win its way into your picks for best films of 2014. Watch it with friends if possible, but a solo viewing will suffice. Happy Halloween!
Editorial written by: James Shotwell
Last year’s Day 31 film: A Nightmare On Elm Street
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