>>REVIEW
MONSTER HOUSE
STARRING Steve Buscemi, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Mitchel Musso
DIRECTED BY Gil Kenan
Opens Friday, July 21
Check listings
Monster House doesn’t seem to know who its audience is. In 1994, Disney’s The Lion King was among the first to blur the lines between what was acceptable in children’s film and what wasn’t. It depicted elaborate death scenes and villains that were perhaps a little too evil for a young child’s comprehension. A dozen years and a much more desensitized audience later, Monster House does the same jagged line.
The film’s subject matter is very dark – death, fear, loneliness and misunderstanding. Director Gil Kenan, as well as writers Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab, gloss it over with oddball humour and the occasional one-liner – including an all-too-brief appearance by Jon Heder – but the underlying darkness is what really dominates what’s being marketed as a children’s film.
Monster House revolves around the tale of an old man who strikes terror into the children who live in his neighbourhood. Early on in the film, the man dies an all-too-real death (so we’re led to believe), including close-ups of his lifeless eyes that sent palpable discomfort through the theatre. Sure enough, the house takes on the man’s characteristics, swallowing children and small animals that dare step foot onto its lawn. Eventually, three unlikely teenagers are forced into the role of hero and everybody lives happily ever after.
The best characters are those that provide comic relief, but they are written out of the plot so quickly and unceremoniously that you forget they were even involved. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s character Zee and Jon Heder’s Skull are reasonably entertaining, but are excused from the film much too abruptly. In both cases, they provide lame excuses as to "somewhere they have to be," and are never to be heard from again.
Aside from that, the only saving grace of the film is the special effects. The animation of the characters themselves is downright creepy – nobody in the film looks vaguely human, although their subtle body language is very well executed. But the animation of the house as it transforms into a monster is something to behold.
Ultimately, Monster House is too intense for young kids and too campy for adults and the story itself just isn’t strong enough to survive the disconnect. Even the animation is hit-and-miss, making it hard to concentrate on what few strengths the film possesses. |
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