1 day to Halloween: Monster House

Posted by on October 30, 2011 in Movies

So you might not think to look to children’s fare to find good examples of horror. And you certainly wouldn’t expect much from a cartoon, for Pete’s sake. Especially one with Spielberg and Zemeckis’ names on it. But if this means you missed Monster House, you missed out.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that the protagonists are kids. This is a grand spooky adventure with just enough of a dark twist to take off that sugary Halloween aftertaste. I’m actually pretty surprised it’s a straight-up PG. It features some really wonderful and imaginative, uh, creature design for lack of a better word. Because — spoiler — the creature is actually a house.

Furthermore, all the stuff with the kids is really well done. In fact, everything Super 8 attempted, Monster House does ten times better. It even uses the same motion capture technique that Zemeckis pressed into service for Polar Express, but it doesn’t make that movie’s mistake of trying to look photorealistic. By presenting animated characters instead of creepy lifelike dolls, Monster House skips nimbly over the uncanny valley.

If you can dig on Nightmare before Christmas, Coraline, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, and Costume Quest, then I promise the sadly overlooked Monster House will be right up your alley.

  • http://twitter.com/kentdoggydog Brian Kent

    I attempted to watch this a few months ago and something about the way they used the camera bugged me such that I could finish it.  I’m having a hard time remembering, but I think they tried to make the camera “realistic” and inserted into the scenes in a hand-held way, but it just didn’t work for me. Do you know what I’m talking about or am I mis-remembering? It certainly was unique camera work for an animated film, I remember that much(?).

  • bastage last name

    I love this movie and the fact that Dan Harmon (Community) and Rob Schrab (Scud) were the writers I’m sure has a lot to do with it.

    Highly recommended ..!

  • Zach

    I totally forgot about this!  I remember thinking it looked good when it came out.  Also, never read “Son’t” before… uncanny!   [grew up in Georgia]

  • Anonymous

    Brian, I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean.  I just watched it again last night, and I didn’t notice the camera doing anything unusual.  Could it be the motion-capture?  I thought it was great, but maybe that was what bothered you?  The life-like animation on the exaggerated characters?

  • Anonymous

    And the copyeditor-of-the-week award goes to Zach!

  • http://twitter.com/gndwyn Urthman

    I remember being amazed at how much better this movie was than I expected.  Very well written and voice acted with a great plot and an ending that doesn’t suck.  And it doesn’t feel like the filmmakers were trying to be Pixar.

  • taha/Toohoo

    Wow, you just listed some of my all time favourite things. I just finished reading Coraline, and it’s a masterpiece in so many ways. Now on to the movie :)

  • Zach

    Ha, I legitimately thought it was “So” + “don’t”! 

  • EHX

    Yeah, after I finished watching it, it had so many references and felt meta that I checked the writers. I wasn’t surprised to see Dan Harmon’s there being a Community fan. 

    With regards to it being pg, that mostly has to do with it being animated. Had this been live action with CG effects, it seems like it would have been slapped with a PG-13.

    “Don’t look back.”
    “I looked back!”