Now on VOD and in limited theaters is the hilarious horror comedy Housebound.
We caught up with director Gerard Johnstone who, in the spirit of his film, selected 5 of his favorite ‘Horror Behind Closed Doors’ films.
In the New Zealand-based film, “Kylie Bucknell is forced to return to the house she grew up in when the court places her on home detention. Her punishment is made all the more unbearable by the fact she has to live there with her mother Miriam – a well-intentioned blabbermouth who’s convinced that the house is haunted. Kylie dismisses Miriam’s superstitions as nothing more than a distraction from a life occupied by boiled vegetables & small town gossip. However, when she too becomes privy to unsettling whispers & strange bumps in the night, she begins to wonder whether she’s inherited her overactive imagination, or if the house is in fact possessed by a hostile spirit who’s not particularly thrilled about her return.”
Johnstone clarifies that he was pretty strict about how to interpret ‘horror behind closed doors’, and specifically left out faves like Evil Dead and Brain Dead because, technically, the horror came from outside…
The Legend of Hellhouse
The first and last films on this list win for pure creepiness. It’s as if there is some sinister spirit lurking underneath the words of Richard Matheson and the direction of John Hough. A big part of the film’s effectiveness also comes from it’s sparse use of music and sound design. My favourite scene is when the lovely Gayle Hunnicut channels the spirits in the house. The stuff that comes out of her mouth is so completely left-field, it doesn’t just send chills down your spine, it the only moment in a film ever that literally put me on the edge of my seat. This film was a huge influence on Housebound, although we never got to shoot in fog. I felt we really let the audience down on that one. In the months off when we were waiting for our actors to return from their paid jobs, I’d wake up and see fog out the window and immediately call Luke, my producer and complain that we weren’t shooting something. I even made us bring in a smoke machine to set one day but it looked terrible. We gave up on it halfway through the scene, so it’s in some shots and not in others.
Poltergeist
It’s not easy to make a PG horror. This is one of the few films which prove that you can make a great horror film without excluding a younger audience. I love the old matte composites of swirling clouds above the rooflines. I wish movies still looked like this. There are so many great moments, like the clown at the end of the bed, but the opening shot on the television static is pure and simple genius. It also makes me lament the times before 24 hour television. I loved falling asleep to white noise. Actually that’s not true, it creeped me out, mostly because of this film.
The People Under the Stairs
This film is tonally all over the place but that’s probably why it was one of my favourite films as a kid. It’s like Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets House Party. Again, a big influence on Housebound as there’s just so much going on but it all works. It’s a black comedy, gothic fairytale, action-adventure, there’s even a mystery to be solved. It also has an African-American lead. It’s kind of the elephant in the room that horror movies always typecast towards scared whities.
From Dusk Till Dawn
I was one of the few lucky people that had no idea going into Dusk Till Dawn that it had Vampires in it. I just thought it was another Tarantino / Rodriguez gangster picture. I wish more films did this, just sidestepped into a completely different genre at the 50 minute mark. It was such a brilliant idea condensing the supernatural elements in one huge action packed finale at the end rather that rationing it out throughout the film.
The Exorcist
There’s not a lot to say about this film that hasn’t already been said, but I will say, one of the hardest challenges with Housebound was making the film feel like it had a soul. So a film that can have this much soul, as dark and tormented as it was, must require an incredible combination of talent. Many of these films appeal to me because they blend genres, which is what I was trying to do on Housebound (whether that worked is debatable), but The Exorcist‘s effectiveness I think came from Friedkin’s aesthetic as a documentary director married up with a very astutely observed family drama, which then slowly spiralled into a spiritual nightmare. There may never be another film like it. And I hope for the sake of a good night’s sleep that there isn’t.
