Monster House is a 2006 American animated supernatural horror comedy film[4] directed by Gil Kenan in his directorial debut, from a screenplay written by Pamela Pettler and the writing team of Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab based on a story written by Harmon and Schrab. The plot revolves around a neighborhood being terrorized by a sentient haunted house during Halloween. The film features the voice talents of Mitchel Musso, Sam Lerner, Spencer Locke, Steve Buscemi, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kevin James, Nick Cannon, Jason Lee, Fred Willard, Jon Heder, Catherine O'Hara, and Kathleen Turner.

Produced by Relativity Media, and executive producers Robert Zemeckis' ImageMovers and Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, the human characters were animated using motion-capture animation, which was previously utilized in Zemeckis' previous film, The Polar Express (2004). It was also Sony's first computer-animated film produced by Sony Pictures Imageworks and Relativity's first animated film.[5]

Monster House was released theatrically by Sony Pictures Releasing through its Columbia Pictures label on July 21, 2006. It received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $142 million worldwide against a $75 million budget. It received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, but lost to Happy Feet and Cars, respectively.

Plot

On the eve of Halloween, young Dustin James "D.J." Walters spies on his elderly neighbor, Horace Nebbercracker, who is known for frightening children off his property and stealing their belongings. D.J.'s parents leave town for a convention, placing him in the care of his teenage babysitter Elizabeth, or Zee. Later, D.J.'s best friend Charles "Chowder" Peterson loses his basketball on Nebbercracker's front yard and D.J. attempts to retrieve it. Nebbercracker angrily confronts D.J., but faints from overexerting himself and is taken away by paramedics, leading the boys to believe he has died.

When Zee's boyfriend Bones visits, he recalls Nebbercracker's theft of his kite and relates rumors of him cannibalizing his late wife. After Zee kicks Bones out, he sees his kite in the front door of Nebbercracker's house and tries to reclaim it, only to be sucked inside. D.J. and Chowder later investigate and discover that the house is possessed by a ghost, which they assume is Nebbercracker's vengeful spirit.

The next morning, the duo save a girl named Jennifer "Jenny" Bennett from the house as she sells candy for her school. Jenny calls police officers Landers and Lister, but the house cunningly stays inactive when the officers arrive and they dismiss the report. The kids consult local supernatural expert Reginald "Skull" Skulinski, who speculates that the house can only be vanquished when its heart is struck. Deducing that its furnace is the heart, the kids construct a dummy filled with cold medicine and offer it to the house to eat, hoping to put it to sleep.

However, Landers and Lister disrupt the plan, and the house devours them all. The children explore the now-asleep house and discover a shrine to Nebbercracker's wife, Constance, whose skeletal remains are entombed in cement. The house awakens, but Jenny grabs its chandelier-like uvula and forces the house to vomit them back outside.

Nebbercracker returns from the hospital alive and reveals that Constance is the house. He explains that when they first met, Constance was an unwilling participant in a circus freak show. Nebbercracker helped her escape, married her, and began constructing a house for them. On Halloween, children began harassing Constance, causing her to fall into the basement, where she was suffocated by a concrete mixer inadvertently activated in the chaos. Upon the house's completion, Constance's spirit merged with it, forcing her husband to feign aggression towards children for their own safety.

D.J. tells Nebbercracker that they must put Constance to rest. Overhearing this, Constance uses a pair of trees to lift the house from its foundation and pursues her husband and the kids. They lure Constance to a nearby construction site, where Chowder fights her with a front end loader. D.J. tosses dynamite into the chimney, destroying the house. Constance's spirit reunites with Nebbercracker before finally ascending to the afterlife. Nebbercracker and the children return everything the former stole to their rightful owners, Jenny returns home, and D.J. and Chowder go trick-or-treating, which D.J. previously felt they were too old for. During the credits, all of the house's victims emerge from the basement unscathed.