Monster House is a Great Horror Concept with One Flaw

 

Credit to Monster House | Rotten Tomatoes

I believe this film is a great film for kids, especially horror fans who are interested in such an original concept. Never in my life have I ever seen a house take on the form of a monster, and the thought of running into something like that is freaking scary as hell. 

The film also has a fantastic backstory when it comes to how the house became a monster. An man named Nebbercracker fell in love with a woman from the circus. Her name was Constance, and had endured horrible trauma when she was in the circus, hating it whenever people would throw things at her. 

Through Nebbercracker, she finds happiness, and he surprises her with a spot that he purchases to buy a house. While the house is undergoing construction, Constance loses her temper when she spots kids throwing things at her house and property. Nebbercracker tries to stop her, explaining to her that it’s Halloween, and the kids are just being silly. 

Constance doesn’t listen, and as she is swinging an axe towards the kids, she ends up tripping into the construction of the basement, while the cement mixer is turned on, suffocating her to death within cement. 

It’s surprisingly dark for a kid’s film, and I remember her death scaring the crap out of me when I was a kid. We even get a glimpse of her dead body within the inside of the house, when the main trio of characters break into the house to somehow kill the monster. It’s some dark shit, but man, it’s one of the reasons why this film is so memorable to me. 

We are given a reason why our main villain hates Halloween. She has trauma over what she endured from the circus, and she is overprotective of her husband. 

So, what is the one flaw that makes me question the film?

Well…it’s due to the location of the house. 

Credit to Monster House — A Spooky Adventure Ten Years Later — Cryptic Rock

The house is in a neighborhood. A middle-class neighborhood from the looks of it. 

And you’re telling me that no living soul noticed a walking house that can transform into a beast at will?

No one heard the heavy footsteps echo throughout the neighborhood when this thing went after the kids at the end of the movie? 

ON HALLOWEEN? 

People literally live across the street…no one happened to notice a house turning into a monster randomly??? If I saw that thing once, I’m calling the fire department. 

Now as an adult…if this film were to ever get some sort of a remake from out of nowhere, I would change only one thing. 

I would put the house in a different location, in a small town by a farm, far away from civilization. Imagine the terror and mystery of people going missing, as they are consumed by the house. Authorities start to get alerted to this strange phenomenon, but no one can solve the mystery. 

And then when this thing goes after the kids, it would make sense, because no one would be around to witness this thing moving around with TREES FOR HANDS. 

While I do enjoy the film quite a bit, I think this aspect would have made the film PERFECT. But maybe the producers were worried about scaring the crap out of kids or something, so they purposely put the house in a neighborhood. 

Despite this one flaw, I think this film deserves love from horror fans. The backstory to the main villain is already great enough, and pretty damn disturbing. The transformations of the house are also amazing to watch, the thought of an angry ghost inside of a house coming after children is nightmare fuel!