 |
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
 |
|
|
|
 email this review to a friend
The idea of a haunted house is quite plausible, but the idea of the house in fact being the haunting is much more interesting. A giant behemoth of a creature with windows as eyes and the front porch and door being the mouth. This is what first time director Gil Kenan throws to the plate and in the process manages to entertain and creep us out at the same time. In a small quiet town on the day before Halloween, DJ (Mitchel Musso), a lanky pre-teen, watches through his telescope as the mean, almost toothless, old man across the street robs kids of their possessions when they approach his house or step on his lawn. Nebbercracker (Steve Buscemi) has been at this for a long time now and DJ has continually approached his parents (Catherine O'Hara and Fred Willard) about the threat in the neighborhood. Traditionally they consider it to be in his head and to be part of puberty, especially since they are going away for some reason as parents in horror flicks usually do. DJ's best friend, Chowder (Sam Lerner), brings over his basketball and he begins to pathetically shoot hoops. At one point, the ball rolls in Nebbercracker's yard and the two attempt to retrieve it. Nebbercracker bursts out of the house and has a heart attack while yelling at DJ. He's taken away in an ambulance and smoke begins to come out of the chimney of his house. The house comes to life and acts like a human head and eats innocent people who approach. When the member of an all girl school, Jenny (Spencer Locke) is almost eaten when trying to sell cookies, the three team up to destroy the house before hundreds of trick or treaters are eaten alive tomorrow night. Last Christmas Eve at a relative's house, I sat down to watch The Polar Express which was currently playing for the little kids. Wow. It was one of the most fascinating animation techniques I've ever witnessed. Though their eyes made them look sort of like zombies, the facial expressions couldn't have been done more precisely. Producer Robert Zemeckis of this film (Monster House), directed Polar and used dubbed performance capture to trace the movements of the face and place them on the characters in the film. The same technique is used in Monster House and looks just as good, and the thankfully the eyes have been fixed to make them look "of the living." The special effects of the house is fun and actually a little scary to watch. When changing appearance from a regular looking house to a monster, the windows light up from inside, the front of the house breaks and folds to become a nose, the railing and rim of the porch become teeth, the door becomes the mouth, and the long red carpet functions as a long tongue that slithers out and grabs it's victims. The lawn sucks things below ground and even the trees function as long dangerous arms. The cinematography by Gil Kenan, Paul C. Babin, and Xavier Pérez Grobet brings a creepy, darkness to the house. Some low shots truly make the house a terrifyingly huge monster and some shots on the porch leaping out onto a unsuspecting victim make the film all the more fun. Writers Dan Harmon, Rob Schrab, and Pamela Pettler show us a fun story that is both relatable, entertaining and scary, but has been rumored to be a rip-off of a book called "Something Lumber This Way Comes." The screenplay also introduces a lot of background information that is important without straying away from the plot. There's a scene where we think DJ is really a mature young adult, but when his babysitter's (Maggie Gyllenhaal) boyfriend, Bones (Jason Lee) tears up a stuffed animal on his bed, you learn that there is still part of him longing for more childhood and less seriousness in the real world. The story behind the monster, however is very interesting, and the history of the house is indeed clever and well put-together. Overall, the story is really about learning to be a little more mature, learning what things are really important, and still taking time to enjoy the fun of being a kid at heart. email this review to a friend
Comment on this Review:
 Subscribe to MatchFlick Movie Reviews through RSS |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
RSS | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | About MatchFlick® | Press | Contact Us | FAQs
Partnership and Advertising Opportunities | Movie Database | Merchandise ©2004-2008 MatchFlick®. All rights reserved. ©MOVIE IMAGES ARE COPYRIGHT PROTECTED AND THE PROPERTY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS |