GREAT Kiwi horror-comedy and one of the most entertaining genre films
of the latest years.
An unholy mix of sometimes really creepy
horror (2/3) and of humour (1/3) that works miraculously well.
It has some "Inside-a-house" spookery as with 2011 "The
Pact" and 2014 "The Canal", so maybe inspired a little
by them ?
But otherwise this film is unquely it's own and the actors are great
and with a deadpan attitude towards the crazy things
that are going on in the Bucknell House.
Kylie Renee Bucknell (Morgana O'Reilly) is an anti-social young woman
in her 25-30's that has failed miserably with the
robbery attempt of an ATM cash machine and she's sentenced to a 8 month
Home Detention with a foot bracelet at her
mother's house. And she has to move home again and live with her sweet
but goofy mother Miriam (a great and lovely
Rima Te Winata) and her
stepfather.
Kylie behaves deplorably against her mother and she's
also annoyed when she hear her mother speak on the radio about
spooky things going on in her house. Kylie thinks her mother is crazy,
but then remembers when she as a child was scared
of the mystical sounds she heard from the house.

The old US XLRator Media DVD edition
And, soon she hear them again, the strange scary sounds,
and luckily her security guard Amos (also great and likeable
Glen-Paul Waru) is an enthusiast of everything Paranormal and he will
help Kylie and Miriam finding the source of the
strange noices and scary occurences happening in the old house. is it
a revengeful ghost ?
Kylie is not happier when she finds out that her parents
bought the house on an auction 20 years earlier, and that it was
functioning as a home for the Mentally ill and sold cheaply because
a young girl was murdered in the house, and in her
room none the less. The local press called it The Halfway House of Horrors.
Then, the film takes a slightly different route from usual genre films.
It has creepy scares, gore and comedy takes on the
genre elements. I loved Mother Miriam and Morgana O'Reilly and Glen-Paul
Wary rocked too.
Great stuff from director and scriptwriter Gerard Johnstone, everything
worked perfectly. Kiwi films seems to rock as
Paul Campion's brilliant 2012 "The Devil's Rock" also is one
of my favourite horror films of this Millennia (please, read
more about this film on also my Horror Film Page 1).
Absolutely no farting fantasy dwarfs in 4 hour CGI snooze fests in sight,
thankfully.
The UK DVD presents the film in anamorphic widescreen
2.40:1 ratio with english audio DD 5.1 or 2.0, region 2
Extras: an audio commentary with director-writer Gerard Johnstone and
the producers, deleted scenes and some trailers
for other films. WARNING! Beware of Kiwi accent english spoken