December 28, 2006
MONSTER HOUSE Haunted by Racism, Heteronormativity, Misogyny, and Fatphobia
By Alicia Kismet Eler
When TOY STORY came out in 1995, the world was shocked and thrilled by Pixar's innovative computer animation. In 2006, over a decade later, MONSTER HOUSE hits the big screen featuring computer animation that is sharper, more life-like, and even more fun than before. Despite these technological improvements, MONSTER HOUSE still employs racist and gendered ideas that have been bubbling to the surface since the earliest animated films -- the stupid black guy as entertaining comic relief, the love story between the two white, straight, attractive main characters, and implicit misogyny and fatphobia.
MONSTER HOUSE begins with an introduction to DJ, an upper-middle class white boy who lives in an American suburb. It is Halloween Eve, and DJ is simoutaneously hitting puberty and deciding that he is too "mature" to go trick-or-treating. When DJ's parents take off on an overnight trip, he's stuck with ADD friend Chowder, and the angsty teenage babysitter Elizabeth who wishes to be known as "Q." Out of both boredom and genuine interest, DJ begins spying on his neighbor across the street, Mr. Nebbercracker. As a grouchy and senile old man, Nebbercracker goes nuts when anyone steps on his lawn. Unlike most crotchedy old people, Nebbercracker steals a little girl's tricycle, a basketball, a kite, and anything else that crosses his path.
After witnessing all of this thievery, valiant DJ knows that he must put an end to Nebbercracker's behavior. In an attempt to rescue Chowder's basketball, DJ manages to break Nebbercracker's arm and cause him to go unconscious. After an ambulance takes the old man away, DJ is convinced that he has killed Nebbercracker. Despite these unfortunate events, DJ still spies on the house. When he starts getting prank phone calls from the house itself, he knows there's something else going on. Chowder tries to prove him wrong by playing "ding-dong-ditch", but is nearly eaten alive by the house itself! The two join up and manage to save a perky know-it-all named Jenny from being devoured by the house, and soon she becomes part of their team.
According to Hollywood movie rules, there must be a love story in the film even if the main characters have just barely reached puberty. MONSTER HOUSE is no exception this rule; in fact, it abides to it perfectly. To no surprise, the skinny, cute, introverted, mature and intelligent DJ falls for Jenny. At the same time, Chowder experiences the same feelings, but because he is a fatass with boy boobies, a serious ADD problem, and a little red cape that he wears even when he ISN'T saving the world, Jenny hardly notices him. Both DJ and Chowder's interest in Jenny becomes apparent upon first site when they see her through a telescope as she is walking up to Nebbercracker's house.
Interestingly, MONSTER HOUSE employs the idea of scopophila as it is geared towards women. As young as Chowder and DJ are, they still manage to get their first glimpse of Jenny through the telescope; they immediately fall in love with her after this first glance. In this sense, scopophilia even in MONSTER HOUSE mirrors early uses of binoculars and telescopes in Hitchcock's classic, THE REAR WINDOW, in which the protagonist L.B. Jeffries watches women in his apartment building through a telescope and binoculars. Unlike DJ and Chowder, however, Jeffries has a broken leg and is thus confined to his apartment. DJ and Chowder are forced to stay in DJ's room in his suburban home because they are too young to explore the surrounding areas.
Aside from the presence of scopophilia in MONSTER HOUSE, racism is a crucial component to the film. When DJ, Chowder, and Jenny attempt to "make the evil house take a nap", their plans are foiled by the arrival of the cops. To no surprise, Cop #1 is an overweight white guy with a belly that sits comfortably over his waistline. Cop #2, his sidekick, is a "trainee" who also happens to be African-American, dumb, spastic, and paranoid. Could he be paranoid because he is patrolling the streets of an entirely white suburb, or is he freaking out because of he is trying to impress his white boss? Regardless of his motivation for fear, the African-American cop is constantly interjecting with statemens that re-enforce his stupidity. No one pays him any mind until he takes the kids' side -- he knows that something is up with the house, but isn't sure exactly what that could be. As he steps towards the house, a tree attacks him and throws him inside to be devoured. A similar fate occurs for Cop#1; soon after, the house takes hold of the car where the three kids are trapped. Although they do not get eaten, they end up inside the house without the house knowing. Once inside, they are able to continue their quest.
As the kids wander the house, they eventually find their way to the basement. DJ discovers a circus cage with the name "Constance" written across the top. Legend has it that Mr. Nebbercracker fattened his wife up and killed her, and DJ thinks that this may have been where he stored her. Using a magic key that he found when Nebbercracker was carried away to the hospital, he opens the heart-shaped lock of the cage. He steps inside, trips on something, and lands face-to-face with a giant cement woman. His weight causes her to literally crack; soon thereafter, the house goes buck wild and attempts to kill the children again.
If it isn't terribly obvious already, the evil house is the manifestation of Mr. Nebbercracker's fat dead wife. Additionally, the house represents domesticity and the “female domain”, making it the ultimate personification of the evil woman.
After the woman/house attacks a couple more times, the kids eventually manage to escape thanks to Jenny's quick thinking. Just as they step foot out of the house, Mr. Nebbercracker sets foot on the lawn -- believe it or not, he is still alive and well! It turns out that the old man only suffered a broken arm; he is far from dead. In a moment of compassion, Nebbercracker tells DJ the romantic story of how his haunted house came to be.
At a young age, Nebbercracker happened to go to the circus and meet a young lady. The only problem was that she was the fat lady that the circus brought out as part of the freakshow. Her name was Constance, and she was a miserable and sad woman. Nebbercracker recognized this immediately and decided that he was going to save her. After the act ended, Nebbercracker found her out back in her cage and told her that he’d take her away from this awful place. She quickly agreed and the two rode off together.
The young Nebbercracker bought a plot of land and started building a house for himself and Constance. As he built, a couple of young neighbors came by and started egging the house and making fun of Constance. She became angry, tried to fight back, but tripped and fell into a pool of cement at the bottom of the house; thus, she was cemented into the house forever. Although her body was gone, her spirit was not – she demanded that Nebbercracker stay on and live in the house. She wanted him to protect the house from kids who would cause trouble while her spirit took the form of the physical house itself. For years on end Nebbercracker obeyed Constance’s wishes – until the afternoon when he met DJ after returning from the hospital and shared his story with him.
After the truth was told, Nebbercracker hesitantly joined forces with the kids. Constance, the love of his life, was now his immortal enemy. With the help of a couple of sticks of dynamite, Mr. Nebbercracker, Chowder’s manipulation of a wrecking ball, and Jenny’s courage, the four of them manage to defeat the evil fat woman-turned-symbolic-domestic house who wrecks hell on the neighborhood and young children. A brilliant toss by DJ lands dynamite into the chimney of the house, its only opening besides the mouth, and blows the house to bits. As this happens, Jenny falls for DJ and gives him a smooch on the lips. Chowder remains in charge of the wrecking ball, a possible suggestion of his future work-life. Mr. Nebbercracker feebly stands back while explosions pierce the sky.
In the end, the natural order is restored to the upper-middle class white suburb (whose name may or may not be Mayville -- this name was briefly mentioned at the end of the film). DJ, Chowder, Mr. Nebbercracker, and Jenny celebrate Halloween in a unique way – they stand at the doorway of Nebbercracker’s former house and give all of the children’' back to them. Jenny’s mom picks her up and DJ’s parents come home just in time for DJ and Chowder to grab the last couple of trick-or-treating hours. Even though they’re both a couple of kids who have saved the neighborhood, they’ve still got to get their trick-or-treat on. After all, they did just make the neighborhood safe from cannibalistic women-turned-houses, right?
