Monster House Year: 2006 Director: Gil Kenan Written by: Dan Harmon, Pamela Pettler, Rob Schrab Threat: House Weapon of Choice: Dynamite Color/B&W/3D: 3-D (some screenings) Language: English Country of Origin: U.S.A. IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
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Rish's Reviews
Three kids discover that not only is the creepy house in their neighbourhood spooky . . . it's actually alive. And hungry.
I was lucky enough to see this in the theatre, and as dubious as I originally was, I quite enjoyed it. I do wish I had seen it earlier, in the 3-D showings, but it's harder to get out to movies now that I am in the Land of a Thousand Wal-marts.
Cleverly written, exciting, and highly entertaining, Monster House was produced by such notables as Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg. In fact, this felt very much like the stuff Spielberg used to make in the 1980's* (whether personally, like Poltergeist, or as a producer, like Goonies or Gremlins), as well as the stuff I wish I could make in the . . . whatever right now is. In fact, it was so similar to a story I wrote a couple of years back that I wonder if maybe I didn't travel forward to 2006 to become inspired.
The film was quite scary, especially at the beginning. Surprisingly so. The haunted house is usually a character in a movie like this, and this is quite a character. It had a uvula.
I'm not a huge fan of computer animation, really. I feel it's used too much in animated films, and WAY too much in live-action films.
But this was quite good. About halfway through, I started wondering if it would be okay for me to buy it (a friend of mine prides himself in not owning any CG films except those made by Pixar, and I thought that was a very laudable stance, especially since he has children), to watch again and again.
Since I wrote the above, I actually did buy it. Silly me.
Best Scare: There's a dream sequence (or maybe it ISN'T a dream), where the twilight shadow of the haunted house oozes through a window into the boy's bedroom. That was really disturbing, even to this jaded adult.
I'd Recommend It To: I guess parents who want to get their families started on Horror really young.
*Though somewhat subtle, it seems to be set back in those Good Old Days as well.
Posted: December 20, 2006

Total Skulls: 21

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?