Monster House

Most of us have seen movies with monsters in the basement, but how would you like to see one where the house is the monster? What if the executive producers were Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg? What if it was shot using performance-capture technology? And the voice talent included Steve Buscemi, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kevin James, Nick Cannon, Jason Lee, Fred Willard, Jon Heder, Catherine O’Hara and Kathleen Turner? Yes, please!

I’m a sucker for movies with friendship at the center, and Monster House (2006) falls in that category. DJ and Chowder share one of the more realistic movie friendships I can recall. They act like a pair of real boys. While DJ (Mitchel Musso) attempts to convince the adults around him that he is “practically a grownup,” Chowder (Sam Lerner), with his little red cape, seems determined to bask in the glow of childhood forever. Their friendship gets temporarily strained when they both crush on the same girl, but they’re able to move beyond such distractions.

The adult figures featured in the story are all seen from the perspective of the boys, generally as unreasonable and lacking in understanding. DJ says that monster houses are “too much for the adult mind to comprehend,” which seems true when the boys’ warnings of danger are largely ignored. His parents (Fred Willard and Catherine O’Hara), who conveniently leave for a couple of days, seem a bit flighty and unconcerned. Even DJ’s babysitter Zee (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is focused only on her own wants and her creepy boyfriend Bones (Jason Lee).

As the movie opens, DJ is spying on his neighbor across the street, Mr. Nebbercracker (Steve Buscemi). Nebbercracker is a piece of work, instantly enraged when any child sets foot on his lawn. DJ and Chowder have a close encounter with the old crank, but he appears to have a heart attack and collapses on poor DJ. As an ambulance drives away from the scene, the two boys assume that Nebbercracker has died.

Through events I won’t describe, DJ and Chowder come to the conclusion that Mr. Nebbercracker’s house is possessed by none other than Mr. Nebbercracker’s spirit. They barely succeed in rescuing Jenny (Spencer Locke) from being eaten by the house as she sells Halloween candy door to door. Since adversity seems to breed camaraderie, Jenny teams up with the boys to find a way to bring down the house (no pun intended).

After the kids call the cops (Kevin James and Nick Cannon) and are met with major skepticism, they decide to go to an “expert”: Skull (Jon Heder), the pizza delivery nerd who’s hooked on an arcade game. With his counsel they decide to infiltrate the house and strike at its “source of life,” which they figure is the furnace. The way they plan to do this has to be seen to be believed.

Much of the enjoyment of Monster House comes from a lot of clever little surprises and moments of humor. For me to describe any more of the story would spoil the fun, but I can describe the experience and characters.

Steve Buscemi is wonderful as Mr. Nebbercracker. His character reveals unexpected layers when we learn the reasons behind his behavior. His is probably the most well-rounded performance in the movie. Maggie Gyllenhaal has fun with Zee, the babysitter with sass, and Jason Lee’s work as her boyfriend Bones is completely different from his work as Syndrome in Pixar’s The Incredibles. Some of the biggest laughs come from Kevin James and Nick Cannon, the dynamic duo of policemen. They never quite realize what they’re up against.

What’s really at the heart of the story is the friendship between the three kids, who at all times act like kids. They are never at any point in the story too clever. They figure things out gradually. Part of the humor of their first attack on the house is the way the plan sounds like something a group of kids would concoct. And the way they stick together, then fight and bicker, and then get over it, is just the way real kids behave.

Like The Polar Express, this film looks animated but actually uses performance-capture. This brings a lot of realism to the performances. Gil Kenan’s direction and Ed Verreaux’s production design give the movie a fresh look we haven’t quite seen before. The design of the house in particular is very effective, especially near the end when we see what it can really do. And the music by Douglas Pipes is at times appropriately scary (but not too scary), and at other times lends the story the right amount of adventure.

The animated look of the movie makes a lot of people think it’s just a show made for kids, but adults who enjoyed Halloween when they were young probably get a bigger kick out of it. In fact, watching Monster House has become a Halloween tradition in my family.  It never gets old.