Monster House

Monster House centres on DJ, a twelve-year-old who has spent years watching the elderly neighbour across the street, Nebbercracker, chase children off his lawn and confiscate their toys. When a stray ball ends up inside the old man's property and Nebbercracker collapses, the house itself begins to behave as though it were alive, swallowing objects, animals and anything else that comes near. With his parents away and no adult willing to believe him, DJ teams up with his friend Chowder and Jenny, a girl they meet in the neighbourhood, to work out what the building really is. The film is set around Halloween.

Gil Kenan directed the film, his first feature, working from a screenplay by Pamela Pettler, Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab. It was produced by Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke for Amblin Entertainment and ImageMovers, with a voice cast led by Mitchel Musso, Sam Lerner, Spencer Locke and Steve Buscemi, alongside Maggie Gyllenhaal and Kevin James. The production combined motion capture performance with computer animation, and cost about 75 million dollars, returning roughly 140 million dollars worldwide.

On IMDb it holds 6.7 out of 10 from about 154,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.7 from roughly 4,400 votes. A critics' rating stands at 7.1 out of 10 from 161 reviews, slightly above the audience scores. Kenan went on to direct City of Ember, Poltergeist, A Boy Called Christmas and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.