So this is a horror comedy, but whereas most horror comedies tend to be heavy on the comedy, this one is really mostly horror, just with some amusing moments to it. There’s no Scream-style meta to it, there’s no slapstick, even the absurd moments are usually tense. And to be clear, none of this is a criticism, because what it amounts to is a movie that works as a tense what’s-going-on horror movie, with just enough lightness not to feel relentlessly grim.

The “what’s-going-on” is pretty much the core of the movie: Is this all being imagined? If it’s not being imagined, is it supernatural or natural? And whichever way that falls, why is it happening? The movie is unusually twisty, with plenty of misleads and reversals and whatever else. This is definitely not short on plot.

It’s also got a fairly unique protagonist: A young woman who is unrepentantly shitty to everyone at all times, just maximally aggro and confrontational in every interaction, and who is eponymously housebound as part of her sentence for engaging in crime. She’s not likable, she’s not charming, she’s not looking for a redemption arc, and yet somehow she’s played with just enough vulnerability that she ends up seeming sympathetic all the same. Maybe it’s the New Zealand accent. (Oh yeah, this is a New Zealand movie.)

This isn’t a movie that’s trying to do anything too fancy; it’s aiming for a good, solid, middle-class, respectable horror action puzzle adventure comedy, and it hits the target squarely. Recommended if that seems like what you’re in the mood for.