Gil Kenan
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After a brilliant opening sequence that references Zemeckis' own Forrest Gump by way of Roald Dahl, we're introduced to DJ (Musso), an ordinary 12-year-old transitioning from being a Halloween fanatic to a teen with precious little time left on his internal gosh-wow, sense-of-wonder clock.
It’s also the first film for newcomer director Gil Kenan, though the presence of executive producers Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemekis is evident from the opening shot, with the flight of a falling autumn leaf echoing both Forrest Gump’s white feather and The Polar Express ’s train ticket.
Filmmaker Robert Zemeckis ("Back to the Future," "Forrest Gump") last directed "The Polar Express," an animated film that featured motion-capture digital characters that were rubbery-faced and looked unreal.
With a tip of its hat to "Polar Express" star Tom Hanks, "Monster House" begins with a "Forrest Gump" homage, following a swirling autumn leaf to its cross path with a little pigtailed girl (voice of Ryan Newman) joyously lalalaing her way along on her tricycle.
A remake of the Steven Spielberg-penned 1982 horror film “Poltergeist.”
Poltergeist is an update of the 1982 horror of the same name and remains faithful to its story: spirits terrorise a suburban family and make a beeline for the youngest of their three children (Kennedi Clements, whose post-Poltergeist life you fervently hope will be sunnier than that of her predecessor, Heather O’Rourke, who died of a heart attack at 12).
One other thing this Poltergeist has in common with its predecessor: It's not directed by Steven Spielberg.
Generally entertaining yet fundamentally unnecessary, "Poltergeist" is a tribute-band take on one of the horror genre’s greatest hits.
The remake of Poltergeist is faithful enough, but to what end?
Elements of the 1982 original already have been heavily pillaged by other movies, so the shiny 2015 version winds up feeling like a third-rate "Insidious" or "The Conjuring," which already are second-rate riffs on themes found in "Poltergeist."
But for all of the script's tentativeness, Kenan (Monster House) brings a high level of craft to his haunted house film, matching recent overhyped ghost stories like The Conjuring and Insidious.
Yet if these filmmakers, with this cast, had just changed a few more details and freed the movie from the responsibility of the Poltergeist name, we might be talking about a pretty decent little haunted-house flick — something along the lines of Insidious, a well-populated Poltergeist homage rather than an outright retelling.
Few even complained when Poltergeist was recently ‘reimagined’ as Insidious, the most profitable film of 2011.
Yet despite the inciting credit crunch of Kenan's update, the potential horrors of downward mobility give way to the cynicisms of corporate manufacture, as Poltergeist degenerates into a stock series of scares, some seeking to capitalize on the 3D format, others blatantly riffing on the terrors of recent horror franchises like Paranormal Activity and Insidious.
Following in the wake of 2011’s Insidious, which was also deeply indebted to the original Poltergeist, this version – directed by Gil Kenan, produced by Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead) – makes largely cosmetic changes to the material without offering much in the way of distinctive frights.
I admit to writing off “Monster House” upon its arrival, only because while the film is wonderful, the story isn’t exactly original (ahem—Robert Wise’s “The Haunting”, anyone?), but the combination of a strong script, and truly down to Earth characters make “Monster House” a short but very entertaining piece of horror fantasy that reaches down into really human themes of loneliness, death, and puberty.
A spooky story for kids, Monster House employs an interesting methodology to create animation out of live action, borrowing the technique developed by Robert Zemeckis for 2004's The Polar Express.
It is the same technique as that of Zemeckis’ own The Polar Express (a timeless, gorgeous film), and those who had issues with the execution in The Polar Express will likely have the same complaints here.
Using the motion-capture technique popularized by one of the film's executive producers, Robert Zemeckis, in "The Polar Express," Kenan's hyperactive visual style aptly reflects the soon-to-be raging hormones of his pre-teen protagonists.
The animation process familiar from The Polar Express has been improved upon and is deployed to great effect for the relatively harsh tale of two pubescent boys -- and the pigtailed girl they pine for -- who investigate the angry residence across the street.
It will be a relief to anyone who unwillingly accompanied a minor to 2004's treacly megahit The Polar Express to learn that Gil Kenan's Monster House, although enamored of the same “performance-capture” technology that made Express's plasticky characters so memorably creepy, does not feature Steven Tyler as a singing North Pole elf.
The computer animation is superb, using the same “motion capture” technique utilized for The Polar Express.
The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)
Directed by Eli Roth
influenced by Monster House (2006)
Themes Visuals
"House" has decent scares for a kid's flick, and an adventurous spirit reminiscent of "Monster House" or a chapter in the "Goosebumps" franchise.
The fact that Amblin Entertainment is involved with this adaptation feels like an ideal situation, as Roth’s work in the film feels perfectly at home with some of the notable fantastical movies that helped cement the production shingle’s legacy throughout the 1980s—films like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, The Goonies, Gremlins, Casper , and even Monster House immediately came to mind when I was watching their newest production.
Sus ruidos, rechinidos, habitaciones, laberínticos espacios y hasta mobiliario viviente, harán que los espectadores evoquen casas como la de Monster House (2006) o el palacio de La Bella y la Bestia (1991).
It's almost as if the textures and tone make the story spookier, and we can compare ParaNorman to the computer animated Monster House for a test drive.
For about an hour, ParaNorman is just about what one might expect and hope for from animation studio Laika: a gorgeous-looking stop-motion cartoon that operates somewhere at the intersection of Monster House and The Monster Squad , slyly harkening back to '80s Amblin adventures and B-grade creature features.
You could make a good Halloween triple feature with “Monster House,” “Coraline” and “ParaNorman.”
The eye candy that LAIKA has delivered is revolutionary and so advanced that it makes Sony’s classic Monster House look like absolute crap.
The film makes the animated “Monster House’’ look positively benign.
Adults are unlikely to embrace it either because the characters aren’t very interesting (after seeing her acclaimed performance in “Atonement,” it is somewhat disconcerting to see the talented Ronan take two steps back in order to appear in material like this that is clearly beneath her talents), the story is little more than a dumbed-down mix of such classics as “THX 1138,” “Logan’s Run” and “Dark City” and the religious symbolism thrown in here and there is so heavy-handed at times that it will inspire only giggles from certain viewers.
Visually, the film has a similar look and feel to Alex Proyas's "Dark City."
Warner Bros. originally acquired the film rights for the franchise in 2015, with the movie set to be directed by Monster House-helmer Gil Kenan.
If the low-key, character-first approach weren’t obvious from previous screenwriters attached to the project, including Monster House’s Gil Kenan and Gremlins’ Chris Columbus, it should have been put beyond doubt by the presence of Josh Hutcherson.
Bad timing aside, the story by Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab (plus Pamela Pettler) â the writing team behind the cult Jack Black/Owen Wilson pilot Heat Vision and Jack â is a wispy thing that, surprisingly, given its Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis producerial pedigree fails to adequately evoke the sheer kidhood magic of the Halloween season.
"Monster House," on the other hand, is full of welcome creepiness due to the terrific script by Dan Harmon & Rob Schrab (of the never aired cult television show "Heat Vision and Jack") and Pamela Pettler ("Corpse Bride"), great imagery and the dynamite voice work by its uniquely assembled cast.
His classmate, Lina Mayfleet (Saoirse Ronan, the horrible sister from "Atonement" ), a descendant of one of Ember's mayors, becomes Doon's compatriot when she discovers an ancient box among her grandmother's possessions.
Adults are unlikely to embrace it either because the characters aren’t very interesting (after seeing her acclaimed performance in “Atonement,” it is somewhat disconcerting to see the talented Ronan take two steps back in order to appear in material like this that is clearly beneath her talents), the story is little more than a dumbed-down mix of such classics as “THX 1138,” “Logan’s Run” and “Dark City” and the religious symbolism thrown in here and there is so heavy-handed at times that it will inspire only giggles from certain viewers.
Trying to fit into their newfound professional roles in Ember, teens Lina (Saoirse Ronan, “Atonement”) and Doon (Harry Treadaway, “Brothers of the Head”) submit themselves to the numbing grind of the city, only to come across an escape plan left behind by the Builders.
Fortunately, the plan lands in the hands of two spunky teenagers -- Lina (Saoirse Ronan of "Atonement") and Roon (Harry Treadaway) -- whose plight it becomes to defy the never-leave-the-city dictates of their society and find their way to the surface.
With her heart set on being a messenger, Lina - played by Saoirse Ronan, the teenager nominated for an Oscar for last year's "Atonement" - secretly switches job assignments with a young man (Harry Treadaway) who drew her dream job, and their clandestine act forms the basis of a fast friendship.
Kenan has also cast a pair of very appealing actors, Saoirse Ronan ("Atonement") and Harry Treadaway ("Control"), in the lead roles of Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow, two young rebels who are determined to spearhead an escape from Ember before the lights go out forever.
(The most Amblin-like contemporary cartoon, 2006’s charming Monster House , was somewhat ahead of the curve on this trend.)
Filmmaker Robert Zemeckis ("Back to the Future," "Forrest Gump") last directed "The Polar Express," an animated film that featured motion-capture digital characters that were rubbery-faced and looked unreal.
Mars Needs Moms marks the latest film from Robert Zemeckis ’ ImageMovers Digital studio, and, like such past efforts from the company as 2006’s Monster House and 2009’s Disney’s A Christmas Carol , the animation in the film has been completed using the motion (or performance) capture process.
Mars Needs Moms is one of Robert Zemeckis's motion capture jobs, like Monster House (2006) and A Christmas Carol (2009), with live-action performances recorded on video then digitally altered so the actors look younger, fatter, or less human.
Up offers a sweeter and less uncanny counterpoint to Gil Kenan’s Monster House, a darker computer-animated tale of a crotchety, reclusive old widower inhabiting a house that’s as much a character as the humans, with a mind of its own.
As in Columbia Pictures' underrated "Monster House," a widower turned sour by the loss of his wife uses his house as a means of finding her again - but "Up" is vastly different in tone, perspective and story.
What many will enjoy about this film is that it’s very much in the spirit of classics like “The Monster Squad” and “The Goonies”, in which we have a small group of kids whom are also outcasts that have to take on a giant obstacle when no one will stand in and help them out.
Its wondrous steampunk production design evokes the films of Terry Gilliam (Brazil and Twelve Monkeys) and Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children).
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)
Directed by Chris Columbus
influenced by City of Ember (2008)
Themes
From 2007's " The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising " to 2008's " City of Ember " to 2009's " Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant ," finding the next "Harry Potter" franchise has been more difficult than anticipated.
Films like Monster House and Coraline have proven there is a space for fun and frightening horror films aimed at a younger demographic.
Attractively lensed by Javier Aguirresarobe (2015's " Poltergeist ") and scored with unique synth-heavy riffs by Mark Mothersbaugh (2015's " Vacation "), the film's plotting is familiar but its approach to said material is unapologetically weird.