What's The Bottom Line special Toxic Tuesday presents Monster House

presents

Monster House (2006)

Starring Mitchel Musso (Hannah Montana and Phineas and Ferb), Sam Lerner (Envy and Nobody Walks) and Spencer Locke (Resident Evil: Extinction and Spanglish)

First Impressions Before Seeing The Film?

In fact, I was just excited about this particular kids film because when we think of Halloween kids film, there all quite oldish. We got Halloweentown, Hocus Pocus, Ghostbusters....yawn! Let's up date the Halloween era and let's see an update Halloween, a more modern Halloween. Don't get me wrong, I love all the Halloween films before 2000s but there's a time where you need to update your Halloween library for adults and for kids as well. I think the most recent halloweenish film...from top of my head The Haunted Mansion with Eddie Murphy. There's a recent one coming to the theatres called "The Book of Life" which appears to be the top of the hat too the whole concept of the day of the dead. But, my impressions of Monster House is that it stands out beyond the rest of the Halloween kids films. We have seen Houses come to life in adult films, Simpsons Spoofs, but we haven't seen a eating house in a kids film. So, I was already impressed because visually it's different. They used different motion technology to capture the film which makes it appear and look different to anything we have encountered in that time. Plus, another Halloween kids film that I just remembered which I find more comical then this film is Hotel Transylvania.

After I Watched The Film?

My expectations were met, but the twists and turns in the film I never ever saw coming. The film itself was really creative and imaginative that's what kids want to see when watching a film. We can clearly see that we want to experience different types of emotions in the film. But, the imagination of stopping the house is extremely creative. Plus, the transformation of the house was incredible! The door was the mouth, the windows were eyes, the roof was like a hat, the trees at the side were hands. I mean, it was incredibly creative to make what most of our childhood imagination of drawing a house and just expand on that, and create such a dark, uncomfortable and abandoned feel house. I have to say that this is my top 6 kids halloween film with Hocus Pocus, Nightmare Before Christmas, Halloweentown, Scooby Doo and the Ghoul School and Edward Scissorhands. Plus, visually stunning, the three teenagers got the characteristics and the personality of what society thinks teenagers are spot on, and how they are treated through babysitters or adults. That's what society is, and I think when teenagers say it to police authority, the guy that's always on the arcade games, adults, parents, etc you get that impression of those realistic reactions. The cops I have to admit you have the one officer done it for years and laid back, the other seems like he just came back from Iraq or just spent a weekend watching Bad Boys 1 and 2 with Hot Fuzz thrown in there. I think all these characters as well, are so different you can some what relate to those characters. You suspect the villain at first is the main villain, but as the film unfolds you can see that it's really a heart warming story. It has the action, suspense, mystery feel about the film which turns into a tragedy at the end. But, it's a Family film so from all the years of watching Family films, there's always a happy ending! But, I think the balance of mystery and creepiness is nice to have in the film because it shows us that we can experience what the teenagers feel, then the other characters. Like, you can physically feel how the house is feeling.....yeah sounds crazy right!??! But, it's true!  

Should They Do Another Film Like This?

Well how it ended, there's just a no brainer it wouldn't happen. BUT, I could see the three teenagers like running there own Ghostbusters operation. I can't see why they can't do Monster House 2 and just make it in another part of town? Maybe, instead of just the one house, it's every house? Maybe, at one time they were all 'freaks' living there or witches or something creative to get are teeth sunk in. I can see it becoming quite creative and really intense in parts. We kind of have a last image in our minds of what happens to everyone, but it would be great to see them grown up, and what happened after that night, yes? That's my opinion anyway, I doubt it would happen because it only did okay in the Box Office, so Hollywood wouldn't really risk doing a sequel to this film.

Facts About This Film?

1. As of 2012, this is the only motion capture film to feature an entirely original story and not be based on existing source material.
2. For the German version of the film, Bones, Skull, and Chowder have been renamed "Punk," "Freak," and "Ketchup."
3. Homages to various Stephen King stories abound. The idea of a house that comes alive and eats people can be found in the third installment of King's "Dark Tower" series, "The Wastelands." And while in the house's basement, Chowder shines his flashlight on a mechanical monkey much like the one found in King's short story "The Monkey," collected in "Skeleton Crew."
4. The first animated film to be made using Sony's animation rendering software.
5. The film is set in a city called Mayville, which is based on screenwriter Rob Schrab's hometown of Mayville, Wisconsin.
6. To keep the movie a PG rating, the victims that were eaten (Bones, the cops and the dog) had to come back to life during the end credits.
7. The poster at the circus for Constance's performance calls her "the woman as big as a house."

My Rankings

I deeply love this film, I find it my favourite kids Halloween themed film because it just have that era of realism, with that hint of comedy. I would say it's my favourite modern Halloween film because it's pasted 2005 then that's the question when does something stop being modern? So, that being said.....I can see myself not loving this film forever. But, I find it really watchable so that in mind and the opinions I said about the film I give this quite a high 8 out of 10. I think it would be selective of preference what you wanted to see in a Halloween film. IMDB users gave this a 6.7 which is why I mentioned all about preferences on films really.

So, What's The Bottom Line?

If you want Frankenstien and the Mummy dancing in a disco then Hotel Translyvania is good. Want to see a Granny on a bus to Halloweentown....watch Halloweentown.....OR want to see Jack Skellington VS Ooogey Boogie then Nightmare Before Christmas. But, if you want to see a house eat people......watch Monster House! And, that's the bottom line!

Here is the trailer:

Here is the IMDB page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385880/

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