SerpApi.Org
Before Community and Rick and Morty, there was Monster House.
Dan Harmon and longtime collaborator Rob Schrab wrote the 2006 animated horror-comedy about a killer domicile, with Hollywood titans Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis serving as executive producers.
It's not hard to see why Spielberg found himself drawn to the material. By all accounts, the film plays like a classic Amblin joint, à la E.T. and The Goonies, when kids save the day while skeptical adults discredit them at every turn. Zemeckis, of course, had his own string of '80s-era touchstones like Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, both of which were also produced by Spielberg and deeply embedded themselves into the cultural consciousness.
While Monster House director Gil Kenan (future co-writer of Ghostbusters: Afterlife and director of its sequel, Frozen Empire) loved the original draft, he brought on Corpse Bride alum Pamela Pettler for a rewrite that added a little more depth to the story.
"The original screenplay was absolutely brilliant and laugh-out-loud funny," he remarked in a 2021 interview with Amblin celebrating the movie's 15th anniversary interview. "My goal was to preserve all of the character and tone work that Dan and Rob had done, but to add a soul to the house and to the film."
Kenan and Pettler's rewrite included the addition of a backstory for why the house was alive: The suburban structure is possessed by the spirit of a former sideshow performer named Constance (Kathleen Turner). For nearly half a century, her husband, Mr. Nebbercracker (Steve Buscemi), has built a reputation as the crotchety old neighbor who detests children venturing onto his property. But the truth is he doesn't hate kids, he just fears for their safety if they get too close to his antagonistic home.
"That sense of backstory, the sort of bass notes to the film is the thing that actually got me excited about making it because I felt like it was connecting to the mood of films that made me a passionate film fan as a younger person," Kenan explained. "The films that didn’t hold back from young audiences and gave them full-throttle experiences. I was really excited and passionate, almost zealous about this idea that Monster House could be a film that restored the idea of animation as an all-audience film."
Despite its Halloween backdrop, Monster House arrived in theaters in the dead of summer on July 21, 2006 to a great deal of critical praise and a sizable box office run of $141 million worldwide.
Harmon, however, effectively disowned his first major writing credit in a 2010 missive to a young girl who was having nightmares after watching the movie.
Why Rick and Morty Creator Disowned Spielberg-Produced Monster House
"I never finished writing Monster House before my bosses turned it into a movie," he wrote. "And then different writers, people I don’t even know, changed the story in lots of ways, and the movie that you saw was not the story I wanted to tell you. I think a good story, even if it is sad or scary while you’re watching it, should always make you a little less scared after you’ve seen it...And that didn’t happen in Monster House."
The letter went on to lambast the Constance backstory and hurl some choice words—namely "hack" and "moron"—in the direction of both Spielberg and Kenan.
"I hope one day I can finish writing a movie that they don’t change so much, and if you see it, I hope it makes you happy," Harmon concluded. concluded. "Until then, I heard that Wall-E is very good, you should go see that. And next time Monster House is on, just remember that the guy that wrote it told you it was dumb."
