Monster House Review Movies The New York Times

Provoked, she attempted to chase them off as Nebbercracker tries to stop her, only to be knocked out as she stumbled and fell into the unfinished basement with her body accidentally being coated in cement, suffocating her. Nebbercracker then finished the house's construction in Constance's memory, but her vengeful spirit soon merged with it. Over the years, Nebbercracker feigned aggression to protect innocent people from her. On the day before Halloween, 12-year-old Dustin James "D.J." Walters documents his elderly neighbor, Horace Nebbercracker, stealing a little girl's tricycle and scaring her away from his house, one of many similar incidents that have occurred. That same day, D.J.'s parents leave for a convention, placing him in the care of his teenage babysitter Elizabeth, or Zee.

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The movie focuses on DJ Walters (Mitchel Musso), a boy who is convinced that there's something strange about the house across the street, and believes it's alive. When his parents (Catherine O'Hara and Fred Willard) go away for the weekend, he tries convincing his babysitter Zee (Maggie Gyllenhaal) that there is something wrong about the house. She does not believe him, so DJ enlists the help of his best friends Chowder (Sam Lerner) and Jenny (Spencer Locke), a girl selling Halloween candy (and who nearly gets eaten by the house). Together, the three of them try to destroy the monster house, along the way figuring out its secret. The film was shot using performance capture in which the actors performed the characters' movement while linked to sensors, a process which was pioneered by Robert Zemeckis. A stereoscopic 3-D version of the film was created and had a limited special release in digital 3-D stereo along with the "flat" version.

Storyline

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The three then witness the house consuming a dog, making them realize the house waits for its prey to get close enough before devouring it. Calling the police, the youthful trio approach the house, thinking about the carnage waiting to happen that evening. The house tries to tempt Chowder with his basketball, but DJ and Jenny stop him from taking the bait. It is then that the cops show up; DJ, Chowder, and Jenny attempt to tell them about the nature of the house.

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However, they realize that the house knows better than to come alive when adults are present. Three teens discover that their neighbor's house is really a living, breathing, scary monster. Nebbercracker returns from the hospital alive and well and it is revealed that Constance is the house.

Enraged, it breaks free and chases the group to a construction site. Nebbercracker attempts to distract the house so he can dynamite it, but the house notices and attacks him. Chowder fights it off with an excavator and DJ is given the dynamite. While Chowder distracts the house, DJ and Jenny climb to the top of a crane, and DJ throws the dynamite into the chimney, causing the house to explode. The trio then see Nebbercracker with Constance's ghost before she ascends into the afterlife.

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Nebbercracker stands up to Constance and realizes how much trouble she has caused recently, making her feel remorse for her actions. Nebbercracker then resolves to put Constance out of her misery by blowing her up with a dynamite. Infuriated by this “betrayal”, Constance grabs her husband, intent on killing him too.

During the chase, Nebbercracker is forced to stop and rest, while Constance continues going after the kids. Some of the scary parts may be too intense for very young or very sensitive children. As in most ghost stories, the fright stands in for other emotions — grief, disappointment, loneliness — and the film’s climactic sequences combine hair-raising sensation with dreamy and delicate pathos. The plain suburban setting becomes (as it did in “E.T.” and Mr. Zemeckis’s “Back to the Future” movies) a zone of enchantment, in no small part because it seems so real.

When they first met, Constance was an unwilling participant in a circus freak show who was ridiculed for her obesity. Nebbercracker developed feelings for her as he helped her escape and they later got married. On Halloween, during their house's construction, some children began tormenting Constance.

DJ and Chowder see her going to Nebbercracker's house, and rush out to save her from being eaten. Overhearing this, Constance becomes enraged, using two trees to lift the house from its foundation and chases her husband and the children. Nebbercracker tries to comfort Constance and explains everything is for the best, but when she realizes his intent to destroy her with some dynamite, she attacks him. As Chowder combats Constance with an excavator from a nearby construction site, the trio then lure her into it.

Zee's boyfriend Bones scared DJ from behind while wearing Chowder's Halloween mask & takes it off. After Zee and Bones left downstairs, DJ called Chowder and told him to meet him at the Danger Zone. DJ quietly walked downstairs and went out the back door while Zee and Bones were in the living room. Bones tells Zee about losing his kite the Awesome Kite on Mr. Nebbercracker's lawn when he was younger, and that Mr. Nebbercracker supposedly ate his wife.

Swings out on a crane's hook with it, dropping it into the house's chimney and vanquishing Constance. Finally freed, her spirit briefly reunites with Nebbercracker before ascending to the afterlife and he then thanks the trio for freeing them from their suffering. However, they end up being arrested by the same police officers they called earlier. Jenny calls her mom about her encounter with the house, but is not believed.