Review of Monster House (2006) by James S — 26 Oct 2010

Reminiscent of an era when family movies were designed to thrill and scare the bejesus out of us, rather than bore us to tears with talking cgi animals, Monster House is a really great movie.

Like those 80s and early 90s movies such as Gremlins, Ghostbusters, The Burbs (probably the movie this most strongly resembles), Monster House has a real air of creepy uneasiness to it. Bad things happen and not everyone will necessarily live happily ever after as a pre-teen begins to suspect his recently deceased neighbours house may be about eat him. It's a spying through a gap in the curtain type movie like Rear Window and Disturbia but this is actually better than both those films.

The animation allows for the fantastical elements of the story to play out very well, and the characters are likeable if a little stereotypical but that helps when the slightly nasty ones get their just deserves. And it's really funny too. Monster House has some great liens in it, nothing to racey but the kind of funny that doesn't play it too safe either.

With some great plot twists, the finale crashes in like a ton of bricks. It's overblown but the best thing to do is just go with it as it's still a whole lot of fun.

Monster House is a great animation with a cracking script, magnificent moments of scary tension, and not a talking cgi potential piece of roadkill in sight.