Monster House

Halloween has always been home to ideas that spark inventive and outlandish scenarios that become staple scary tales, and one of the most popular is the haunted house. While simple in theory, the ways that someone can explore a domicile being occupied by a vengeful spirit has a lot of potential, and whether through a book, poem or film, there have been countless examples that have remained in the public awareness due to their largely experimental and provoking deliveries. The 2006 CG horror comedy, Monster House, may not be a game-changer of any kind as it only did decently at the box office and received a moderately warm reception from both critics and audiences, but that image of a sentient house was quickly ingrained in the minds of the people who saw it, and it deserves flowers for doing so.

On the day before Halloween, 12-year-old James ‘’D. J’’ Walters (voiced by Mitchell Musso) is left in the care of a babysitter while his parents leave for a few days, leaving him to continue his usual activities of spying on his neighbor, Mr. Nebbercracker (voiced by Steve Buscemi), who is known for scaring people off his lawn and confiscating any items that end up on it. After a brief confrontation that causes Nebbercracker to have a heart attack, D. J starts to fear that something supernatural is occurring when he notices strange happenings going on in Nebbercracker’s house, which is quickly proven true to him and his best friend, Chowder (voiced by Sam Lerner) when they see that the house is alive and has started to eat anything (or anyone) that comes on its lawn. After saving a girl named Jenny (voiced by Spencer Locke) from becoming its next meal, the three believe that Nebbercracker’s spirit has possessed the house and is trying to exact revenge on D. J for killing him, but they are unable to prove anything as no one ever sees the house move. Needing to solve this problem themselves, the three will conduct a plan to enter the belly of the beast and finish it off for good, not realizing that they are about to unveil the tragic truth behind this entire situation.

Monster House stumbles a bit when it comes to pinning down its humor, animation and depth of character, yet with a few likeable leads, an occasional well-written line and a great visual display of its core premise, it comes out well furbished enough to warrant a look around

The initial idea came from newcomer director, Gil Kenan, who was struggling to pitch his idea for a Pac-Man movie to multiple different producers and studios, but things changed when he received the script for Monster House (which was originally conceived by Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab) and he pitched his own version of the story to Bennet Schneir, the head of story development at production company, ImageMovers. This in turn led to discussions with Robert Zemeckis (who owned ImageMovers) and Steven Spielberg, both of whom became producers for the film, and with their help along with Spielberg’s production company Amblin Entertainment, and Sony Pictures (who helped distribute it), it was eventually brought to life. The film adopted a new direction from the original script, which seemed to be more comically led and had a much meaner side to it (which makes sense given Harmon is responsible for shows like Community and Rick and Morty, and Schrab worked on shows like Parks and Recreation, The Mindy Project and Mystery Science Theatre 3000). This came about when Kenan took over and got the help of screenwriter, Pamela Pettler (who previously wrote for kid-friendly content with a dark twist like Corpse Bride and 9) to construct a story that felt more likeably spooky rather than cruel and bitter. With that said, the film does still contain a slight meanness and aggression to it that, while not enough to dull down the noticeably wackier components or child-friendly delivery, helps make it feel just a tad bit edgier than others of its kind.

While not necessarily scary as Kenan’s directing seems a little soft (probably because it was his first directing job), there are a few moments that do feel unnerving for a younger audience, and that comes through how well it takes advantage of its concept and the fun visuals and situations that come from it.  Everything surrounding the house itself is very well done, from the way that it looks and ‘’expresses’’ after it shows its true self, to how the various components of a house have been retooled to now act as inner organs to this abnormal monstrosity, to even how it was created and the truth behind why it exists, it really knew how to use this one image and do a lot with it through memorable visuals, an appropriately balanced tone, and a creatively quirky yet still tragic origin story that perfectly captures both sides of this premise. The script isn’t always perfect, and a joke will ramble on for too long and feel like someone riffing on a sketch show, but every once and a while, there is a well-written scene that shows it has a sense of how to form good timing and pay-off. The film isn’t too long so doesn’t wear out its welcome, it doesn’t really have solid arcs and can rush past pre-established relationships for the means of getting to a quick happy ending but contains enough of a heart to illicit at least a little bit of a sweet factor, and while nothing incredible, has an active, fun side to its creepiness that makes for a fun Halloween watch.

The characters don’t always feel properly thought out and don’t take time to establish personality or backstory outside of the bare minimum, but some of them are cartoonishly likeably enough. It is appropriate that Spielberg helped work on this film, because it has a diluted but still clear 80s personality through how the characters (especially the kids) act off each other, as it has a snarky smart-mouth quality that helps things feel just a bit more believable, and therefore more tolerable when they act like familiar movie archetypes. The kids honestly work the best with this, as while all three are very generic roles for these kinds of stories, they are written and acted well enough that they come across as fairly likeable. Mithcell Musso, Sam Lerner and Spencer Locke work well with this average material and do make these three kids enjoyable and fun to be around, which can’t be said for the rest of the characters.

The cast for this film is bizarre, as it feels like it contains a lot of unexpected choices or people that would work better in a sketch comedy rather than a proper film, with examples like Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jason Lee, Catherine O’Hara, and Kathleen Turner mostly just being wasted one-off parts, and people like Nick Cannon, Kevin Smith, Jon Heder and Fred Willard coming across as pretty annoying in their small roles even if their overall acting is fine. Steve Buscemi has the right voice and look for this movie and does work better in the movie because he’s given more to do in the story, yet his character goes through a heel turn near the end that, while comprehensible with context, comes too suddenly and sporadically to really feel as authentic as it needs to. The best character, as previously stated, is the house itself, and the way that it can get across a sense of personality through its design, manner of handling its victims, and even how it reacts to feeling hurt or sad, is another great touch that helps make this concept that could be seen as too ridiculous, feel more plausible.

The film actually had multiple untested animation styles to work with, being the first animated feature to use Arnold referencing system (or Autodesk Arnold system), was one of the first to be entirely rendered with path-tracing and was shot using motion capture in a similar way to Zemeckis’ other animated experiment, The Polar Express (which came out two years prior). With all of these new options at the forefront, and with Sony still being new to animated movies and still trying to form a distinct style, it’s no surprise that the visuals look a little wonky. It can be explained away by the film hoping to adopt an awkward look to benefit the creepier tone, and while some of the designs are appropriately off-putting (mainly Mr. Nebbercracker with how they used Steve Buscemi’s already unique-looking face on an animated character), but otherwise, it doesn’t come together effectively and makes the movie look a little unfinished at times.

The character models can look choppy and weird, the camera work by Xavier Perez Grobet at times can be pretty dynamic and would’ve made for an engaging theatre viewing but can otherwise look a little cramped and too zoomed in, and it doesn’t even feel like the movie really benefits that much from these unique animation choices, so it just feels like a consequence of experimentation. With that said, some areas of the visuals look okay, especially in regard to the backgrounds. The environments do look pretty basic, but they have a charming set-like quality to them that makes it feel almost intentionally fake in parts (almost like a diorama), the autumn setting and the film’s overall color palette and lighting choices really conveys the Halloween aesthetic, and even though it is a little mishandled, the style does really lend way into the more warped and creepier aspects of the story (again, most of the components surrounding the house).

It is a little simplistic to say that the only thing that really works about Monster House is the Monster House but considering that it is the main premise and was kind of banking on proving to people that it could pull off a haunted house story with a fun new twist, it did at least manage that. There have been so many horror ideas that waste their titular idea and spend more time on generic filler characters and storylines, so to see this premise being well executed and fully taken advantage of, is pretty uplifting. The rest of the film isn’t really that awful as it has a few memorable characters and an occasional good line and visual, but they mainly just act as decent looking lawn ornaments standing in the way of the true star of the sidewalk. This house does make for one heck of a memorable character and whether or not the whole thing stays in someone’s mind, they won’t easily be able to forget this sentient living residence, and for that, the film deserves some praise at the very least.