31 Days Of Hallowe’en: Monster House (2006)

Welcome to JOE's 31 Days Of Hallowe'en. For each and every day of October, we'll be bringing you a horror movie to tuck into for the lead up to the big night. It could be new, old, an undiscovered gem, or a classic you'll have seen a thousand times. No matter what it is, we guarantee you that it is brilliant, and it is SCARY.

For Day 29, we're looking back over 2006's animated family-friendly but still creepy flick, Monster House. Here are some of the other animated movies that were released in 2006, and the box office hauls they made: Cars ($462 million), Happy Feet ($384 million), Ice Age: The Meltdown ($661 million), Over The Hedge ($336 million). Comparatively, Monster House made just $140 million, which is considered somewhat of a flop for a big budget animated movie, which is probably why we haven't seen too many animated horror movies aimed at families since then. Which is a real shame, because Monster House is actually all kinds of brilliant, written by Dan Harmon (Community, Rick & Morty), produced by Robert Zemekis (Back To The Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) and Steven Spielberg (too many greats to list here), and with a great voice cast including Steve Buscemi, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Catherine O'Hara, Fred Willard, Jason Lee, Nick Cannon, Kevin James, Jon Heder and Kathleen Turner. Clip via YouTube Movies The plot takes bits and pieces from different kid-friendly spooky tales and makes a fantastically modern Frankenstein's Monster out of them: two best friends and the girl they both kinda like believe that the scary house in their neighbourhood is haunted. However, when they actually get to investigating, they find that the house isn't only haunted - it is ALIVE, capable of moving and devouring anyone who gets too close. So with the help of the few people that they can convince to believe they aren't making things up, they try to destroy the house, but the scary old owner (Buscemi) isn't going to let them do it without a fight. It really is a shame that this didn't take off the way it deserved to, because not only is it very funny - you can really hear some of the one-liners from the demented mind behind Rick & Morty in there - but it doesn't skimp on being scary, either. Kid-friendly scary-movies can too often be a little toothless, but not in this case. Prepare for the intensity to set a few of the young'uns to go diving behind the nearest pillow in fright. And some of the accompanying adults, too. Check out our previous recommendations below: Day 1 - The Omen Day 2 - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Day 3 - The Ring Day 4 - The Invitation Day 5 - Scream 2 Day 6 - It Follows Day 7 - Eden Lake Day 8 - The Thing (1982) Day 9 - Switchblade Romance Day 10 - The Babadook Day 11 - 28 Weeks Later Day 12 - The Strangers Day 13 - Friday The 13th (1980) Day 14 - [REC] & [REC]2 Day 15 - Bone Tomahawk Day 16 - Candyman Day 17 - Green Room Day 18 - 30 Days Of Night Day 19 - The Blair Witch Project Day 20 - The Descent Day 21 - What Lies Beneath Day 22 - The Others Day 23 - The Birds Day 24 - Don't Breathe Day 25 - Dawn Of The Dead (2004) Day 26 - The Fly (1986) Day 27 - Train To Busan Day 28 - Wolf Creek