THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Everyone has that one house in their neighborhood that appears off putting. The last thing to expect is for it to be alive.
PLOT
Monster House follows 12 year old DJ Walters, whose parents, Mr. and Mrs. Walters (Fred Willard & Catherine O'Hara). are attending a dentist convention. He spies on his elderly neighbor, Horace Nebbercracker, who steals children's belongings when they invade his property. He plays basketball with his best friend Chowder (who wears a red cape), but starts feeling that he is too old to trick or treat. When the latter tries to shoot a hoop, it ricochets and hits his face, rolling all the way to Nebbercracker's lawn. DJ does try to retrieve it but when the neighbor confronts him, he has a heart attack. The boy believes him to be dead and finds himself responsible for it. Just as his babysitter Elizabeth arrives, he finds a golden key in the lawn and Chowder goes home. Elizabeth reveals to be strict and obnoxious, whereas the parents mistake her to be fun loving. At night, DJ gets a phone call from the house, but no one is on the other end. He gets scared by Zee's boyfriend named 'Bones' (Jason Lee). He does share his belief that he is haunted by the ghost of Nebbercracker, but he and his girlfriend don't believe him. Bones would then go too far by damaging one of the boy's toys. Downstairs, he shares with Zee that when he was a kid, Nebbercracker stole his kite when it landed on his lawn. He did notice that he oddly talked to his house and kissed it, pointing out that he likely ate his wife long ago. When Zee kicks him out, this gives the chance to sneak out. Bones drunkenly invades Nebbercracker's property and is taken away by the house, by luring him after showing him his kite. DJ meets up with Chowder at a construction site and neither does he believe him of his theory. He goes to ding dong ditch the house and sadly, the caped boy is proven wrong. As the bell rings, he notices smoke coming from the chimney. The windows glow as the lights turn on automatically and the wood from inside turns into teeth. He runs away when the carpet acts as a tongue and attempts to catch him. When he runs with him to his house, it loudly roars at him. They stay up monitoring its moves, but it remained dormant throughout. They tell Zee their encounter in the morning, but she does not believe either. They do quickly save a girl named Jenny Bennett when she was attempting to sell candy. Zee spends the rest of the day searching for Bones, as she does not believe DJ's claim he was likely eaten alive by the house. Jenny thanks the boys for saving her life and when seeing get taken away by the house, she decides to call the police. The only two officers, Landers and Lister, arrive and do not believe either claim from the three. They also threaten to arrest them if they continue to harass the house. They go get advice from Reginald 'Skull' Skullinski, who mostly plays video games when not doing his job, delivering pizza. Based on his knowledge of the supernatural, he claims that the soul of Nebbercracker could have merged with the house. If they were to destroy the house, he also suggests that they must find the heart. Jenny quickly deducts that the heart could be the furnace since smoke has come from the chimney since Nebbercracker died. DJ pitches to lure a dummy full of cough medicine to put the house to sleep. This would give enough time for them to find the heart and destroy it before it could wake up. Chowder steals the medicine from his dad's pharmacy and the rest build the dummy out of a vacuum cleaner, a mask, a jacket and two brooms. The cops keep their word and arrest them for their actions. Just as they place them in their car, they choose to examine the house. This results in them being swallowed by the house. It would then take the car with the kids in it. They do get out of the car in time, but not the house. So, they move forward with finding the heart. They all fall into the basement during their search. Aside from all the stolen toys, they find a cage that contained the corpse of Nebbercracker's wife, Constance, buried in cement. The kids enter the cage and see the body, thanks to the golden key DJ found. The house wakes up and finds where they are. It attempts to eat them all, but Jenny gets it throw up when coming into contact with the chandelier, that is the uvula. Just as they survived, the boys consider giving up. An ambulance appears and Nebbercracker comes out, revealing to survive the heart attack. This means that Constance is the live house. DJ confronts his neighbor and tells him what he discovered. This leads to him sharing how he met her and how she died: He met her in a circus as she was part of an act, being called 'The Giantess'. She was always made fun of because of her obesity. He was deeply in love with her and he chose to help her escape. Once they married, he began building a house for them both. On one Halloween, she was harassed by a group of kids. Constance tried to retaliate by hurting them with an axe, but she lost her footing and died in the foundations of the house. She tried to pull on from a lever, but it only released the cement as she fell, resulting in her burial. Even though Horace eventually finished the house, her spirit stayed and chose to attack whoever would come near. Aware that she was alive, he would keep people away by pretending to hate everyone for their safety. Just as DJ encourages him to let his wife go, she overhears this and plans to attack them all. She moves with two trees that act as her arms. When Horace fails to kill her, he gives dynamite to DJ, knowing he could pull it off. Chowder fights the house with an excavator from the construction site. He does cause damage, but it only rebuilds itself shortly after destruction. As this happens, DJ climbs to the top of a tower crane, hoping to throw the dynamite into the chimney. Nervous to move forward, Jenny motivates him with a kiss. Now completely focused, he keeps moving and swings around, hoping to get a clear shot. Once Jenny lights up the dynamite, she tosses it to him, he catches it and succeeds in throwing into the chimney. Just as he and Chowder duck for cover, the house explodes and is defeated for good. Horace does say goodbye to the spirit of the love of his life and despite losing her and his house, he thanks the kids for freeing him. They celebrate Halloween by returning the stolen toys to the children. Jenny goes home with her mother and hugs the boys goodbye. As Horace gives Chowder back his ball, DJ's parents return home from the convention. Once they're back, DJ decides to join his friend in another trip of trick or treating. As the credits roll, the film ends with the revealing that Bones, the cops and the dog have survived their attack from the house.
THOUGHTS
In 2006, I felt like the funniest kid in the world when seeing a bunch of animated films in theaters, from Cars to Happy Feet. And this film was no exception because I had a good time with this one as well. Director Gil Kenan and co writers Pamela Pettler, Dan Harmon & Rob Schrab succeed in crafting a story that is unlike anything kids could ever imagine. It is pretty challenging to find something as creative as this. While it is not exactly scary like horror classics beforehand, it's not trying to be because you're so caught up with the insanity that ensues. Aside from standard computerized animation, the biggest accomplishment this movie has was a big lesson to be learned: Never judge people by their appearances, because words are as dangerous as actions. You get that message through such an interesting array of characters, played by what is arguably an excellent voice cast. For starters, Steve Buscemi gave another incredible voice performance in the role of Horace Nebbercracker. He is easily one of the most tragic characters you'll ever see. He started out as a pleasant figure, but had to become hostile to his neighborhood, in order to protect everyone from the deadly spirit of his wife. He fell for her in the first place because he clearly saw the innocence in her deep down. He may have lost her twice, but at least now he is not trapped anymore. With her gone for good, I do hope he gets the chance to enjoy the rest of his life. Speaking of which, the best of animation goes to whenever the living house is on focus. Seeing it come alive is as horrific as the backstory of the spirit herself that is Constance. Portrayed by Kathleen Turner, we understood that she was someone that was full of anger due to being constantly harassed by others. She became a monster because she was treated like one and refused to put up with it. When she died, she chose to embrace it and continue to wreck her own set of havoc whenever she could. Going into the protagonists, I thought Mitchell Musso stood out as the lead role of DJ. He is someone who shows his intelligence by drawing suspicion early on with the mystery of the house. Even though he does get scared of what comes his way, he does his best to put that fear aside and be as mature as possible to handle the situation. Even though he pulled it off destroying the house, he didn't do it alone. I always watch this movie because Sam Lerner is freaking hilarious as Chowder. Everything this dim witted kid says throughout will always crack me up, becoming highly quotable in the process. Aside from that, he shows his own set of bravery by fighting the house on his own with an excavator. Seeing him wing it in that situation was awesome. Spencer Locke was also able to shine as Jenny. She does so because of how she expresses her own set of maturity and resourcefulness, also showing her own set of bravery when messing with the uvula and tossing DJ the dynamite. Knowing that the boys saved her life and shared an insane journey with her, I do hope they remain close after this. Leaning into the supporting cast, Maggie Gyllenhaal was good as well as Zee. Seeing her start out as a goody goody and then immediately embrace her sardonic attitude was hilarious yet impressive. I even got a laugh out of Jon Heder as Skull. Hearing this guy have a strong passion for video games and not have a normal conversation with the kids is funny because it is relatable. I've had my days playing games all day and not have proper conversations with people around me. Aside from Chowder, the biggest laughs I got out of this movie was from Officers Landers & Lister. Portrayed by Kevin James & Nick Cannon, they were a dynamic duo I didn't think I needed because they are hilarious to see throughout. While Lister is adventurous due to being new to the job, Landers is laid back and doesn't exactly take serious with the kids' claims. The one scene that is forever timeless for its hilarity will be Lister pulling out his gun for a joke, but Landers putting it down because it's loaded. The fear in Landers' voice as he shouts "That's loaded" will make me laugh so hard, I would have to pause the movie until I stopped. Since they did survive as Bones did, I wonder how they're gonna share their experience to Judy. I really enjoyed this movie, but there were so issues I gained after many years of casual re watching. The first thing that really triggered me was how no one else in the neighborhood notices the house but the main characters being alive. They don't hear the roars and no trick or treaters saw it move around when it chased the protagonists. And nobody saw/heard the explosion. Hell, no one even noticed the ambulance but Zee. I mean that is insane of how clueless everyone was. And how is it that no one has reported the police that Nebbercracker has stolen toys from kids? No one knows the truth of the house unless they confront the man. After what we saw, of course I wouldn't want to see him, but it is more realistic if he was reported at least a few times. I mean it's crazy to believe that every people would be as afraid as their kids would be. It is a tense scene how Constance uses the grass to make her husband stay, but shouldn't the paramedics have used the walkway? I say this because they do not at all and it is weird. It was a surprise to hear the phone ringing across the street, but I can't buy that DJ heard it from that far. I don't care how quiet the block is, there is especially no way when both house's windows are closed. I know it is funny how the kids get advice from Skull, but why not anyone else in the neighborhood that has legit knowledge? Since the spirit of Constance is in the house, I'd imagine talking to a priest about it. Speaking of which, the only time she gets tricked is when she focuses solely on the vacuum dummy and not the kids behind the trashcan. I mean she can't be that dumb. It is Halloween and she should know that there would be more than one kid out there. The biggest question I have is how the kids don't go straight to the furnace when there was certainty that is where the heart is? They do look around, but they take way too long in the main room. And why didn't the furnace remain active if the house did an upchuck after Jenny messed with the uvula. The water filled up the whole house. It should've put out the fire, whether or not that would've killed her. I am even creeped out on how Nebbercracker drove home when paramedics should've dropped him off. If he stole it, that should've been clear. And then there is a continuity error where it disappears once Constance starts chasing him and the kids. It would've been realistic if there was a clear answer on his transportation. I even got fair things to point out during the flashback sequence. First off, why was Constance's cage outside the circus proper? I really doubt she would be looked at as an outcast in a place where each act are considered equals. If she was harassed by clowns or the ringmaster, I would like to know that. To top it off, why were the kids harassing the Nebbercrackers when they appear to be miles away from the neighborhood? I know we need the backstory to come to a conclusion, but it never made sense to me. And lastly, did Chowder ever get a concussion during the conflict against Constance? He didn't have a seatbelt when riding the excavator. I don't want this kid to get hurt, but he is pretty lucky for not getting hurt. However, I do think these issues become easy to ignore once you start the movie. To wrap up, Monster House is a horror film that is perfect to watch with children. If you think haunted houses don't scare you, maybe this movie will give you second thoughts.
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