Monster House (1982 film)

**Monster House** is an American haunted house film written and directed by George Johnson. It became a hit when not only released in theaters but first aired on television.

## Plot

On October 30, 1983 in Mayville, Wisconsin, the parents of 13-year-old D.J. Walters go to a dentist convention for the weekend, leaving him in the care of his babysitter Zee. D.J. has been spying on his elderly neighbor, Horace Nebbercracker, who scares away children from his front yard and confiscates their belongings. After D.J.'s best friend, Chowder, misplaces his basketball on Nebbercracker's lawn, D.J. is caught attempting to retrieve it and the enraged Nebbercracker appears to suffer a heart attack from overexerting himself and is taken away by an ambulance. He is presumed dead by D.J. who holds himself responsible. That night, D.J. gets phone calls from the house with no one on the other end.

Zee's boyfriend, Bones, comes over for the night and reveals that as a child, Nebbercracker stole his kite and was allegedly rumored to have eaten his wife. After Zee throws him out, he sees his lost kite in the house's front door, but is abducted by the house while attempting to retrieve it. D.J. and Chowder investigate but retreat when the house comes alive and attacks them. The next morning, schoolgirl Jenny Bennett sells Halloween candy and goes to the house; D.J. and Chowder save her before she gets eaten. Jenny calls police officers Landers and Lister, who do not believe the children because the house is inactive when adults are present.

The trio consults supernatural expert Reginald "Skull" Skulinski and two people were two cameos (Emily and Hailey Matthews), learning that the house is a rare monster created when a human soul merges with a man-made structure, and can only be killed by destroying its heart. Concluding that Nebbercracker's spirit was responsible and that the heart must be its furnace, they create and bring a dummy containing cold medicine from a pharmacy owned by Chowder's father. Before the dummy reaches the house however, Landers and Lister thwart their plan and arrest them after Landers discovers the stolen medicine. Before they can leave, the house devours everyone and the police vehicle. While Zee looking for Bones, she saw the house started eating police car with people inside it, she attempted to stop it, it was too late.

After the house falls asleep, the three begin exploring it. In the basement, they find a shrine containing the cement-encased skeleton of Nebbercracker's late wife, Constance the Giantess. The house attacks them, though they force it to vomit them outside by grabbing its uvula. Zee saw that when that happened while calling Elizabeth's mother on the phone. She tells the kids that she now believes that house was monster. Nebbercracker returns alive and well, revealing that the house is actually possessed by Constance's spirit. As a young man, he met Constance, then an unwilling member of a circus freak show, and fell in love with her. After helping her to escape, they were married and he bought a piece of land to construct a house. One Halloween, two children tormented Constance for her size. Constance became enraged and attempted to chase off the children with an axe; when Nebbercracker attempted to stop her, she accidentally tripped and fell to her death in the unfinished basement of the house, in the process inadvertently activating a cement mixer that buried her body. Nebbercracker finished the house like she would've wanted, and when it became obvious that Constance's vengeful spirit had possessed the house, he began driving away visitors to protect them.

D.J. convinces Nebbercracker to let Constance go, enraging the house. When everyone hears it, and tells everyone to run away from town except Zee. It breaks free from its foundation and chases after the group. Nebbercracker realizes the trouble Constance has caused and attempts to destroy the house with some dynamite, and it attempts to kill him. Chowder intervenes using an excavator from the adjacent construction site and Nebbercracker gives D.J. the dynamite. After luring the house into the site, D.J. ascends the nearby crane and, with Jenny's help, manages to throw the dynamite into the house's chimney, destroying it and releasing Constance's spirit, who shares a final moment with Nebbercracker before finally ascending to the afterlife as Nebbercracker thanks the kids for freeing him from being trapped without Constance for 45 years. Zee thanks to the group including Skull, for saving her life. That night, the children Nebbercracker drove away line up at the former site of the house, where the group returns everything confiscated by Nebbercracker. D.J. and Chowder go trick-or-treating, which they initially felt they were too old for.

At the end of the credits, those who were eaten by the house emerge from the basement. Bones finds that Zee is now dating Skull, Officer Landers and Officer Lister leave to "investigate" some of the trick-or-treating candy.

## Cast

* Anthony Michael Hall as D.J. Walters
* Oliver Robins as Chowder
* Edie Baird as Jenny
* Richard Knott as Horace Nebbercracker
* Jamie Lee Curtis as Elizabeth "Zee"
* Malcolm McDowell as Bones
* Christine Hargreaves as Constance Nebbercracker
* Jack Wild as Reginald Skullinski
* Richard Pryor as Police Officer Lester
* Graham Chapman as Police Officer Landers
* Gilda Radner as Mrs. Walters, D.J.'s mother
* George Segal as Mr. Walters, D.J.'s father
* Hailey Matthews as Cameo
* Emily Matthews as Cameo
* George Johnson as Cameo
* Heather O'Rourke as Eliza (aka Little Girl)
* Betsy Palmer as Elizabeth's mother

## Production

After the release of Fun Fair On The Lake in 1980, George Johnson had plans to make the next film that took inspiration from many films like Jaws and The Amityville Horror. Filming began on October 10, 1981, on location at Sharon Springs, New York. When they weren't filming, the cast stayed at the Adler Hotel (as Yarkony’s Adler Hotel). The production wrapped on November 16, 1981. Post-production began in December 1981, it was finished in July 1982. Johnson sent that final edit of the movie to New Mexico-based film company Golden Nugget Studios, and they agreed to release this movie in November 1982.

## Release

Monster House was released on November 3, 1982, it was intended by George Johnson, Emily Matthews, and Richard Knott. It became a box office hit for critics and viewers.

When Tri-Star Pictures acquired the film rights after Golden Nugget Studios went bankrupt, they were re-released for the first time on October 31, 1984, with a new THX sound system.

They made a TV version of it with some deleted scenes that were cut from the film, including the scene where Emily Matthews' cameo role told trios about she knows about how the house was becoming a monster; she gives trios an idea and thanks her for her plan, and the trio left the restaurant. Emily told her real-life daughter, Hailey, said to her that she jokes about Nebbercracker's house had a lot of fighting skills, Hailey simply said "What?".

## Home video releases

### VHS releases

**Opening previews:**
* FBI Warning screen
* 1982 Golden Nugget Home Entertainment logo
* Karen Packer: The Teenage Girl Behind The Brown Door intro
* Karen Packer: The Teenage Girl Behind The Brown Door closing
* 1976 Golden Nugget Studios logo
* 1980 Johnson Studios logo
* Start of movie

**Closing previews:**
* After credits scene
* MMPA PG Rating Screen
 No picture of the cover