Monster House (film) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Monster House |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Gil Kenan |
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| Music by | Douglas Pipes |
| Cinematography | Xavier Perez Grobet |
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| Distributed by | Sony Pictures Releasing |
| Release date(s) | July 21, 2006 (United States) |
| Running time | 91 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $75 million |
| Money made | $141.9 million |
Monster House is a 2006 American computer-animated supernatural comedy horror film directed by Gil Kenan in his directorial debut from a screenplay by Dan Harmon, Rob Schrab and Pamela Pettler, about a neighborhood being terrorized by a sentient haunted house during Halloween. The film features the voices of Mitchel Musso, Sam Lerner, Spencer Locke, Steve Buscemi, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kevin James, Nick Cannon, Jason Lee, Fred Willard, Jon Heder, Catherine O'Hara and Kathleen Turner, as well as human characters being animated using live action motion capture animation, which was previously used in The Polar Express (2004).
Produced by Robert Zemeckis' ImageMovers and Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, the film was released theatrically by Columbia Pictures on July 21, 2006 to generally positive reviews from critics. It grossed $142 million worldwide against a production budget of $75 million.
Contents
Plot
The parents of 12-year-old D.J. go on an errand for the weekend, leaving him in the care of his babysitter Zee. D.J. has been spying on his elderly neighbor Mr. Nebbercracker, who scares away children and confiscates their belongings that land in his front yard. After D.J.'s best friend Chowder loses his basketball on Nebbercracker's lawn, D.J. is caught attempting to retrieve it, and the enraged Nebbercracker suffers a heart attack from overexerting himself and is taken away by an ambulance. That night, D.J. gets phone calls from the house with no one there.
Zee's boyfriend Bones comes over for the night and reveals that as a child, Nebbercracker stole his kite and was allegedly rumored to have eaten his wife. After Zee throws him out, he sees his lost kite in the house's front door, but is devoured by the house while attempting to retrieve it. D.J. and Chowder investigate but retreat when the house comes alive and attacks them. The next morning, schoolgirl Jenny Bennett sells Halloween candy and goes to the house; D.J. and Chowder save her before she gets eaten. Jenny calls police officers Landers and Lister, who do not believe the trio because the house is inactive when adults are present.
The trio consults supernatural expert Reginald "Skull" Skulinski, learning that the house is a rare monster created when a human soul merges with a man-made structure and that it can only be killed by destroying its heart. Concluding that the ghost is Nebbercracker and the heart must be the furnace, they create and bring a dummy containing cold medicine from a pharmacy. Before the dummy reaches the house; however, Landers and Lister thwart the trio's plan and arrest them after Landers discovers the stolen medicine. Before they can leave, the house eats the two officers and their police car and traps D.J., Chowder, and Jenny inside it.
After the house falls asleep, the three begin exploring it. In the basement, they find a shrine containing the encased-in-cement body of Nebbercracker's late wife, Constance the Giantess. The house attacks them, though they force it to vomit them outside by grabbing its uvula. Nebbercracker returns alive, revealing that the house is possessed by Constance's spirit. As a young man, he met Constance, then an unwilling member of a circus freak show, and fell in love with her despite her obesity and rescued her from the circus. They then got married and Nebbercracker buys a piece of land so that he can start building a house for them. One Halloween, while Nebbercracker is building the house, two children start to tormented Constance due to her size. She loses her temper and grabs an axe and goes to attack them, but she loses her footing and falls to her death in the unfinished basement. Aware that Constance's spirit made the house come alive, Nebbercracker drove everyone away in order to protect them from being eaten.
D.J. convinces Nebbercracker to let Constance go, much to the house's anger. It breaks free from its foundation and, using trees as arms, chases after the group. Nebbercracker realizes the trouble Constance has caused and attempts to blow the house up with dynamite, but it attacks him. D.J., Chowder, and Jenny attack the house with a backhoe loader and lures it to a construction site. After they knock the house down a large slope, they assume that it has been defeated after it gets smashed to pieces. However, the house reassembles itself and continues to go after them. In the end, after lureing it over to a large crane, D.J. manages to throw the dynamite into the house's chimney, causing it to explode and release Constance's ghost, who shares a final dance with Nebbercracker before finally ascending to the afterlife. Nebbercracker thanks the trio for freeing him and his wife from being trapped for 45 years. That night, children in their Halloween costumes line up at the former site of the house, where Nebbercracker, D.J., Chowder and Jenny return their toys to them. Chowder and D.J. go trick-or-treating, which they earlier felt they were too old for.
During the credits, those who were eaten by the house emerge from the basement. Bones finds that Zee is now dating Skull, Officer Landers and Officer Lister leave to "investigate" some of the trick-or-treating candy, a dog pees on a nearby jack-o'-lantern enough to put out its flame.
Cast
- Mitchel Musso as Dustin James "D.J." Walters
- Sam Lerner as Charles "Chowder"
- Spencer Locke as Jennifer “Jenny” Bennett
- Steve Buscemi as Mr. Horace Nebbercracker, Constance's husband
- Maggie Gyllenhaal as Elizabeth "Zee”
- Kevin James as Senior Police Officer Landers
- Nick Cannon as Police Officer Lister
- Jon Heder as Reginald "Skull" Skulinski
- Jason Lee as Bones
- Catherine O'Hara as Mrs. Walters (credited as "Mom"), D.J.'s mother
- Fred Willard as Mr. Walters (credited as "Dad"), D.J.'s father
- Kathleen Turner as Constance Nebbercracker, Horace's wife
Video game
A video game based on the film was released by THQ on July 18, 2006 for the PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS.
See also
In Spanish: Monster House para niños
