"Housebound quickly tears apart the classic haunted-house movie piece by piece, and then reconstructs it on the fly with fresh new materials, garnished with oodles of blood, dark comedy, strong characters and genuine suspense." – Twitch

With his debut feature, Gerard Johnstone mixes a strong plot with genuine frights and a high gag rate to create a freaky concoction bound to please genre fans.

In a magnetic, star-making performance, Morgana O'Reilly plays Kylie, a petty thief who returns to her childhood home when the court places her under house arrest. Her mother (Rima Te Wiata) insists the house is haunted, but Kylie won't have a bar of it until strange whispers and bumps in the night have her convinced she's inherited her mother's over-active imagination. With an ankle monitor to keep her in one spot, Kylie ain't gonna escape this paranormal activity.

"Sometimes at the festival you walk into a room knowing nothing, sit down, and get your skull punched in by a movie that is calibrated perfectly … Housebound is one of those movies." – Hitfix

Gerard Johnstone is a festival guest.