Monster House (2006)
The Cast
Mitchel Musso ... DJ
Sam Lerner ... Chowder
Spencer Locke ... Jenny
Steve Buscemi ... Nebbercracker
Catherine O'Hara ... Mom
Fred Willard ... Dad
Maggie Gyllenhaal ... Zee
Jason Lee ... Bones
Kevin James ... Officer Landers
Nick Cannon ... Officer Lister
Jon Heder ... Reginald 'Skull' Skulinski
Kathleen Turner ... Constance
Occasionally my searches for holiday-themed movies to watch and review yield absolutely nothing but crap movies. Sometimes I get lucky though and somehow find a movie that somehow slipped under my radar when it was originally released. Or it's a movie I would've been interested in checking out when it first came out, but I wasn't motivated enough. Whatever, there's a myriad of reasons for not going to see holiday-themed movies at the multiplex and the number one reason on that list is that I'm not too big a fan of spending money on a predictable outcome. Unless it's high-stakes gambling and the winner is a lock. This is why I sort of missed the boat with Monster House last year.
Last year, for some reason Sony Pictures thought it would be a great idea to release a Hallowe'en-themed animation movie in July. It had a $22 million opening weekend and ended up with a $73 million overall box office take and was released on DVD last October, which is one of the shorter release windows I've ever seen. The DVD release in October was, of course, to capitalise on Hallowe'en which was pretty much what they should've done in the first place but whatever. I'm not here to review the business practices of Sony Pictures, I'm here to tell you whether or not you should check out the movie.
Gil Kenan directed Monster House using 3D motion capture technology, having the real live actors perform the scenes and then "skinning" them into their animated forms. Apparently this technique is a lot like the one used in The Polar Express, except the decision was made to alter the forms of the animated characters, so audiences would be far less creeped out. This was actually a good idea, because otherwise why not just green-screen the performances of the actors and make it live-actionish? Anyways, there's this crazy old man neighbour by the name of Nebbercracker (Buscemi) who owns and maintains a fairly freaky looking house and makes a habit of screaming at kids that set foot on his property. The kid that lives across the street, DJ (Musso), ends up in a confrontation with Nebbercracker which results in the old man being sent to the hospital. This is when it starts to get spooky.
Everyone always thought it was Nebbercracker that was the crazy one, but with his hospitalization comes the realisation that the house is actually haunted or alive or something freaky. DJ and his oafish friend Chowder (Lerner) recruit the help of Jenny (Locke), a smart-as-a-whip private school girl who just so happens to be in the neighbourhood selling candy to homeowners that don't have any for Trick or Treaters come Hallowe'en. Since the house is clearly monstrous and eating people, dogs and drunks, their mission is to either stop other kids from going there on Hallowe'en, or kill the house.
Monster House would have benefited more from being rated PG-13 rather than the PG rating it aimed for. This was a legitimately creepy-feeling movie for most of its running time, achieving most of its dark tone through the horror of the kids and the activities of the house. Not to mention that yeah, the house actually did seem to eat people. The performances throughout are fairly well done, with the highlights easily being the trio of youngsters, although Nick Cannon (of all people) also entertained me decently.
There's just something missing in the overall product of the movie, whether it be in the explanation of the origin of the house's haunting, or what happens during the end credits to deflate the tone of the entire movie. It's still a well-made and fairly entertaining animated picture that captures the imagination and horror of childhood perfectly well. Unlike most of the non-Pixar animated films that are made nowadays, it's not rife with pop culture references that will render the film horribly aged in about two years. Give it some time, and Monster House may prove to be a decent timeless Hallowe'en movie to check out yearly.
3.5 / 5
Hallowe'enish Related Reviews
Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)
Evil Dead II (1987)
The Hills Have Eyes (2006)