Monster House Reviews

There's been so much animation released this year, that it's almost been hard to keep track it all. We've gotten cartoons about monkey's, cars, and teenagers who drift in mountains in Tokyo (oh wait). Keeping track of them can be a bit of a chore, and I had no reason to be really excited about "Monster House" in any way. I mean, the story seems simple enough: Old man across the street lives in a house that is secretly haunted and READY TO EAT YOU IF YOU STEP ON THE LAWN!!!!!! Yeah, okay, that sounds pretty lame. Oh, and this movie is being made from a guy who has never made a movie before and just got out of college? Gee, this all sounds so...fun. I'm sorry, but when I can sum up the storyline in one sentence, it gets hard to get into the idea behind the movie.

But I am here to tell you, I was wrong in my assumptions. Dead wrong. From the way the movies looked, this looked like a movie for little kids prying on their fears that old houses will eat you while spitting on you, or something like that. But "Monster House" not only ends up being far more complicated and deep then the previews suggest, it actually ends up being scary. The story revolves around a twelve year old boy named D.J. D.J. is growing up, his voice is starting to crack, and he's starting to notice girls. When his best friend, a boy with the strange name of Chowder, comes over to inquire about Trick or Treating on Halloween the next day, D.J. says that he doesn't intend to Trick or Treat, as that sort of thing is beginning to feel very silly to him as he gets older.

The only possibly reason D.J. would have to going Trick or Treating would be if the babysitter he was being stuck with all weekend got on his nerves to a certain extent (when we meet her, we find that she might be all the motivation he needs to go out). But while the two boys are playing basketball, their balls falls on old man Nebbercrackers lawn, who died the previous day of a heart attack. When D.J. goes to retrieve the ball, the windows become eyes, the door becomes a mouth, and the trees become hands, and the house comes alive as he attacks young D.J. in a sudden and surprising attack sequence. The boys report the house to the police and the babysitter, but no one believes their story. Well, two people do. A pizza delivery boy named Skull believes them because of things he's seen between his journeys to his comic book conventions, and a girl named Jenny (who believes them mainly because the house tries to eat her).

When the house actually attacks and manages to eat someone, the kids realize they must do what they can to destroy the house before Halloween night comes, and tons of kids are put into danger. From this point on, we get a complicated film where secrets about the house are discovered, characters feelings are dived into, and some surprisingly scary moments lurk around every corner. This is one of the few animated features to actually set a mood and aura to create suspense and fear, instead of just making things jump out of shadows, which results more in cheap jumps then actual fear. One sequence where the kids launch in a plan gone wrong in particular gets very intense, very scary, and keeps you on the edge of your seat.

In fact, the whole movie does an extremely good job of balanced these terrifying, scary, excellent action sequences with these slow, somber, and intelligent scenes of dialog and character interaction. There is some humor spread out that feels like it was tacked on so that kids have something to laugh about (and I can't say they won't need these moments), but overall this is a thriller crossed with a character drama. Of course, you wouldn't know any of this is you watched the previews, but that's okay. This is what reviews are for. Reviews are also helpful because there might be a good movie that you wouldn't really know was good unless you read a good review. One of these movies if "Monster House." From the people I've talked to, no one has really been interested in this movie.

Either the story from the previews sound lame and boring. Maybe people are having a hard time keeping track of all the animated films out there. The biggest star in this movie is Jon Hedar, and he less then fifteen lines of dialog. The biggest reason though, from what I hear, is that it sounded like a kiddie film. Trust me folks, this is NOT a kiddie film! In fact, I'm going to venture to say that this film is scary enough, that I think kids under the age of ten are going to be scared by this film, as it really does become quite trippy (if you know what I mean). I also have to admit, this film gets quite sad near the end of the movie, to the point where I was on the verge of tears (of course, I'm a sucker for sad stories).

In fact, if it weren't for the fact that "A Scanner Darkly" came out this year, I would say that "Monster House" would have been the front runner for Best Animated Feature Film at the Academy Awards. If "A Scanner Darkly" doesn't win though, I'm sure this wonderful film will win. "Monster House" took me completely by surprise, as I wasn't expecting anything more then a simple kids movie. Instead, I got one of the most scary, action packed, emotional animated films I've seen since 2002's "Spirited Away." Here's hoping people take the time and take a chance on this wonderful film. Just leave all kids under ten at home, because this film is scary. I can't stress that enough, if you have kids under the age of ten, LEAVE THEM AT HOME!!!!

Side Note: Some theaters are showing this movie in 3D using the Real Cinema 3D process. Having seen the movie in 3D, I can testify that the 3D adds to the whole experience, and if the option to see it in 3D is available to you, then take it.

I just saw this film today (after missing out on a sold out sneak preview last weekend) and the increased level of expectation was met with one of the most rewarding moviegoing experiences I've had in the last five years. Monster House gives us one doozy of a spooky antagonist, a decrepit domicile of living malice that gobbles errant toys and passerby with equal ingenuity and viciousness.

The house is plain old MEAN, and for really small children perhaps a little too scary to take in a gigantic room filled with strangers and darkness. But for those of us who are too grown up for a nighlight this is perfect, creepy entertainment.

The same motion capture technology used to create The Polar Express (a film which I have still yet to see) is a very interesting and appropriate choice for this film, where the only truly fantastic element is the demented house that will not suffer trespassers. It works so well because the eerie realism that depicts the characters is so starkly contrasted with the insanity that ultimately drives the Monster House to be, well, so monstrous.

Now I fully expected to be entertained by the antics of the house, but I didn't expect there to be much of a story. Again I was pleasantly surprised by what I think is a script that I believe is just as worthy of an Oscar nomination as the script for The Incredibles was. There is, beneath the floorboards of this film, more heart than horror. A tale of love, retribution, acceptance, forgiveness, and ultimately letting go.

Monster House is, beyond a doubt, one of the coolest Horror movies for kids ever made. A Halloween tradition in the making that dares to answer that age old question: Can a house be haunted?

The answer is a resounding yes with a disquieting post script.

Whatever is haunted may also be hungry!

"Monster House" may be one of the most effective haunted house movies I've ever seen. The fact that it's a family oriented CGI film doesn't affect its credibility as an entertaining story. If anything, it made the idea even better because it didn't have to rely to adult oriented methods like sex, language, and gore to get the point across. Instead, it relies on a solid story, good characterizations, and an attention to detail. That's a rare combination in movies these days, most of which are nothing more than remakes. It was so nice to see an original story again, especially since it involved a house that could literally morph into a living, breathing eating machine. This is but one of many examples of the film's morbid yet intelligent sense of humor, a quality perfectly suited for a story with adolescent characters.

It's also an incredibly fun movie, filled with moments of comedy, suspense, and action. Of course, the breathtaking animation helps a great deal, every shot being a stylistic reinterpretation of the real world. This film relies on the motion capture technique of animation, using real actors to perform the movements of the digital characters. It was the same technique used for "The Polar Express," and in both cases, it gave the characters a distinct feel that I couldn't quite put my finger on; it was as if they were that much closer to being alive, despite their stylized physical appearances. For "Monster House," the characters reminded me of old-fashioned hand drawings that have finally been released from the mechanical prison of traditional cel animation. They looked cartoonish but felt much more organic. I can only say that watching them was a fascinating experience.

But just as fascinating was the new twist on the classic Don't Enter a Strange Place Alone fable that all children have instilled in their heads by the time they turn three. The owner of the haunted house is Mr. Nebbercracker (Steve Buscemi); a seemingly mean spirited old man who goes into fits of rage whenever anyone steps on his lawn. We see this right at the beginning when a young girl accidentally gets stuck in the lawn while riding her tricycle. Nebbercracker runs out of the house and screams at the poor child, after which he breaks her tricycle and scares her off with even more screaming. The fable-like quality of that scene very obviously comes through; in real life, there always seems to be one house in the neighborhood that parents warn their children to stay away from.

I find it really interesting that parents would say such things to their children, considering a child's belief in a fantastic or strange event is almost never taken seriously. The children of "Monster House" are almost like the Baudelaire siblings of the "A Series of Unfortunate Events" books: they live in a world where adults are unable and/or unwilling to believe a word they say. DJ (Mitchel Musso), his best friend, Chowder (Sam Lerner), and Jenny (Spencer Locke) can't convince anyone of anything: not their parents, not the babysitter, and certainly not the police. And when Nebbercracker collapses in a seemingly dead heap and is soon thereafter wheeled away in an ambulance, it truly does become a game of Them Vs. The Rest of the World. That's because his absence prompts the house to come to life, distorting itself into a grotesque, splintery face whenever someone steps onto the property (the windows are the eyes, the front door is the mouth, and the porch railing make up the teeth). It uses images of wanted objects like toys as a lure, giving it ample opportunity to hungrily gobble innocent people up.

The story takes place in October, specifically the day before and the night of Halloween. From a strictly entertainment-based point of view, that's the perfect time of year for a house to come to life and for a group of children to fight against it. But it also serves the plot reasonably well: keep in mind that Halloween is the one night when large groups of children wander the streets, knock on doors, and beg for candy. They'll be tempted to knock on Nebbercracker's door, despite not knowing that he's gone and that the house is alive. And because DJ, Chowder, and Jenny firmly believe that the spirit of a bitter old man is literally possessing the walls of his former house, they know they have to act quickly; a house with a ravenous appetite for people will almost certainly get its fill on Halloween, especially if it wants revenge against the children who pestered it for so many years.

But when the heroic trio manages to enter the house (meant to be pulled off through an elaborate conglomeration of a vacuum cleaner and bottles of cold medicine), they discover many things about Nebbercracker no one had ever known before. They have to go about it carefully, though; the house, it seems, has the ability to fall asleep, and if it wakes up, the floor will act as a throat, the carpet will act as a tongue, and the feeding frenzy will begin. Searching as discreetly as they can, they see pictures of a woman named Constance (seen in flashback and voiced by Kathleen Turner). They also discover a basement filled with toys, presumably the ones Nebbercracker had been snatching away all these years. Most importantly, they find a cage with a heart-shaped lock. All of these discoveries connect and they eventually lead to a pretty stunning revelation, one that directly relates to a sad event in the old man's past.

It's this sad event in particular that shows a much darker side to this story, a side some parents may not want their younger children to see. A couple of things about this movie are a little heavy-handed for anyone under the age of eight, including a mean boyfriend character (Jason Lee) that drinks a beer while angrily taunting Nebbercracker. But don't get the wrong impression; this is very much a family film, and it's filled with child-friendly characters. These include the babysitter, Zee (Maggie Gyllenhaal), the nerdy videogame fanatic, Skull (Jon Heder), and the completely inept cops Lister (Nick Cannon) and Landers (Kevin James). They add appropriately humorous touches without taking anything away from the more serious undertones of the story. On top of everything, the film successfully mixes in important ideas about beliefs, friendship, and understanding. That was no small feat, considering the audience has to keep their attention fixed on the old, rickety, possessed house the entire time.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that the story teaches the characters a valuable lesson. This is despite the fact that most of them are continuously learning throughout the film (whether or not they're aware of it). I will say that the sequences of events push the main characters into rethinking what they thought of as the truth. It's surprising that this method worked so well in a haunted house movie; in other films of that kind, I've found that it can detract from the main focus of the story. Sometimes it doesn't work at all, like in the case of the "Thirteen Ghosts" remake. It was so overburdened with special effects and spooky imagery that its story was completely lost in the process. Fortunately, "Monster House" is a pure haunted house movie, made with care, precision, and style. It was an imaginative, well-crafted film, and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

I can't tell you how much involvement the creative team behind the Back to the Future trilogy (Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis) had with their new collaboration, Monster House, but something seemed to be missing.

The story follows the adventures of three kids out to battle a possessed house on Halloween. The feel of the film resembled another Spielberg vehicle, The Goonies. The main characters from both films appeared quite similar and at least one key scene was stolen directly from The Goonies script.

I was afraid that children would be too frightened by the images and content, but the kids in the sold-out audience were having a ball. Instead of shrieking in fear, they were laughing in most cases. In fact, only one person shouted out, and that was an adult.

Monster House is a great movie for little kids who are too young for horror movies, but too old for Winnie the Pooh. There's nothing in the film that is any scarier than a Harry Potter or Pirates of the Caribbean film. The only difference is that a parent may not be as entertained with Monster House.

I saw the 2D version of the film, but I understand that the 3D version is much more impressive and that the quality of the three dimension presentation is greater than a typical "does this look 3D to you" film.

The competition in theaters is hotter than ever. Unless you are a parent, this is one film that you can afford to miss.