This movie has the word "monster" in its title for a reason.
As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
The movie:
- Just the house in general.. Not to mention the part near the end, when it turns two trees into its legs.
- The fact that all the planks cut irregularly when the house turns into a monster is especially scary since those planks are sharp and could tear clothes, or worse, leave bloody wounds, scratches, or splinters. Some scenes that deal with so many of those planks could have been sharp enough to deal fatal injuries.
- When the house is upset, it can make the creepiest
◊ of faces.◊- A short bit right after Mr. Nebbercracker is carted away in the ambulance is a shot of DJ with the point of view from behind one of the house's upstairs windows. A crack slowly forms its way from the corner of the window pane... and then it changes direction and cuts across DJ's neck as the house makes a quiet, ominous growl, removing any doubt that this house wants DJ and his friends dead.
- Its One-Winged Angel form during the climax. It certainly resembles a monster more than a house at this point.
- As an added bonus, an early draft of the movie reveals that originally the interior of the house was supposed to be filled with actual human internal organs rather than wooden walls and floors.
- The part where the protagonists find the skeleton in the house's dark, grotesque basement.
- Whenever the house "eats" someone or something with its carpet-tongue.
- It ate a whole car, for crying out loud! Then it tries to eat the kids. Visually, this scene is particularly disturbing because it's the first scene where the house looks at its angriest and deformed. It wasn't just attacking on instinct, it felt merciless rage towards the kids for everything that they had planned to do to her with the vacuum cleaner dummy and their attempt to report it to the police.
- In another unsettling scene in the movie, DJ has a nightmare in which a shadow of a giant hand attacks him in his sleep. The entire room glows an eerie shade of red, and the music intensifies the tension.
- Some of the original concept art of the movie reveals that in DJ's original nightmare scene, he was supposed to be inside the house, where he would be walking down an eerie, empty hallway with pipes bursting through the walls.
- Another early draft of the movie, Zee, DJ's babysitter was originally supposed to be grabbed by one of the house's trees.
- This◊ unused concept art which depicts a deleted scene where Chowder is in Constance's room and her ghost appears to be charging at him while screaming from a mirror.
- The house actually manages to call DJ on his phone. All he hears is its breathing.
- Mr. Nebbercracker◊ was a little frightening◊ in the beginning of the movie.
- Mr. Nebbercracker, whenever he's yelling at people to get off his lawn and stay away from his house, even though he's only doing it for the sake of their own lives and doesn't want them to become his house's next meals.
- He went WAY too far towards the little girl at the beginning; yelling at her and ripping the front wheel of her tricycle. He also went too far towards DJ; grabbing him by the arm, lifting him up in the air, and yelling in his face.
- Constance's death by concrete-drowning. In the present, this leaves a concrete shell of her body in the basement. However, it's accidentally cracked open, revealing the skeleton underneath it.
- The DVD menu for the movie. It certainly does not look like a menu for a typical children's film. It is night-time, none of the main characters from the movie are present, you hear nothing but a loop of the movie's creepy main title score and all you see is the house staring at you with an angry face, breathing and growling.
- To make things even creepier, if you play the movie and return to the main menu after watching it, the house will randomly switch to its monstrous face and roar at you. Yes, there are jump scares in a DVD for a children's film.
- The icing on the cake: When you press play movie, the house’s carpet tongue will lunge towards you and pull you inside the house!
- The house's doorbell. Easily the most frightening sound ever to be put in an animated film.
- The fact that Constance, on the day of her death, had taken an axe from her husband before she tried to go after the children egging her house. Yes, that is correct. Even though she was panicked and angry at them making fun of her because of her time in the circus, this does not negate the fact that she apparently planned on chasing down a group of children with intent to harm them with an axe.
- Minor, but there is one part near the beginning of the film where DJ is trying to get Chowder's basketball back, and Nebbercracker spots him. DJ tries to flee, but gets caught by Nebbercracker, who picks him up and confronts him about what he is doing on his lawn and near his house.Nebbercracker: You think you can just terrorize my lawn?!DJ: No, I'm sorry!Nebbercracker: You wanna be a dead person?!DJ: No! I love life!Nebbercracker: This place is not a playground for children!DJ: Got it from now on!
- Due to DJ's weight and his age, Nebbercracker starts to suffer a cardiac arrest. To make matters worse, as he is suffering, it shows DJ's POV of an uncomfortable close-up shot of Nebbercracker's face as he falls over, on top of him, with his motionless eyes staring at him.
The Video Game:
- Everything about the game. It was surprisingly dark for a game with only an E10+ rating. At times it almost feels like a throwback to Resident Evil.
- Constance's mannequin. Its appearance in the GBA version of the game is arguably even worse, as you encounter it several times throughout the game, and it gets more deformed each time you come across it, with its final and worst state being fought in the same room as Constance's skeleton. The music during the boss battle doesn't help this.
- The music of the game would qualify as creepy, but the music that plays during the final boss is probably the most frightening.
- The constant Paranoia Fuel you'll experience throughout the entire game. Literally anything in the house can attack you.
