Chowder (Monster House)

Chowder (also known as "Charles") is the deuteragonist of the 2006 film, Monster House. He is a 12 year old boy, who is DJ's best friend. He has a habit of acting slightly strange and immature.

Role
Chowder is first seen wearing a rubber monster mask and almost getting hit by DJ's parents' car when they leave town for the weekend for a dentists convention. Chowder paid $28 on a basketball and loses his basketball on Nebbercracker's lawn. Chowder wants DJ to recover it but DJ told him that it doesn't exist anymore. DJ tries to recover it but is caught by Nebbercracker, who rages at him before apparently suffering a heart attack and being taken away in an ambulance and Chowder heads back home. That night, DJ enlists Chowder's help to investigate the house. Later, DJ and Chowder spy on the house but Chowder refuses to believe the house is possesed. He crawls up to the house, and on his way he finds a beer bottle (left by the drunk Bones). Chowder emerges from the ground and immitates Nebbercracker on the porch, then rings the doorbell. The house wakes up and is disturbed when it finds Chowder and DJ on its property. The windows (the eyes) light up, the door (the mouth) opens and sharp boards break out of the top and bottom (the teeth) and inside the house the floorboards break open (the throat) leading to the basement (the stomach) the carpet rises from the stairs(the tongue is the carpet) and the stairs appear to lead to the brain (unknown object). The carpet comes out to get Chowder, and later DJ, but they escape.

The next morning, Jenny Bennett is on the street selling Halloween chocolates. DJ and Chowder see her going to Nebbercracker's house, and they rush out to warn her, managing to catch her before she is eaten by the house. Jenny decides to call for the police, but when police officers Landers and Lester arrive, they do not believe their story, as the house does not react to the kids' teasing while the cops are there.

The trio seek advice from Reginald "Skull" Skulinski, a strange video game addict working in a pizza parlor who is claimed to be an expert on the supernatural. They learn that the house is a "domus mactabilis" (Latin for "deadly home"); a monstrous being created when a human soul merges with a structure. They assume the house is inhabited by Nebbercracker's soul. The only way to kill the house is to destroy its heart; its source of life. They conclude that the heart must be the fireplace, as DJ realizes that the chimney has been smoking since Nebbercracker died. Chowder provides a dummy filled with medicine that should cause the house to sleep long enough for them to douse the furnace. The plan almost succeeds, but Officers Landers and Lester arrive and thwart it. Landers discovers the cold medicine inside the dummy, which Chowder took from his father's pharmacy, and arrests them. The cops place the trio in the police car while they examine the house. The house eats Landers, Lester, and the car. DJ, Chowder, and Jenny escape the car but are trapped in the house.

The house falls asleep and they begin exploring. They fall into the basement and find an enormous collection of toys accumulated from Nebbercracker's lawn, as well as a locked cage that DJ opens with a key he found on the lawn. They find the body of Constance the Giantess (Kathleen Turner), Nebbercracker's wife, encased in cement. The house realizes they are inside and begins attacking them. DJ, Chowder, and Jenny force the house to vomit them outside by grabbing onto its uvula. The trio are surprised when Nebbercracker arrives home alive, but with his arm in a sling, revealing that the house is possessed by Constance.

The house breaks free from the house's foundation, with trees to support it (the arms), and chases the group to a nearby construction site. Nebbercracker attempts to convince Constance that she should die while holding a stick of dynamite, but Constance refuses. As she tries to eat him, Chowder fights the house off with a back hoe, causing her to fall into a pit. DJ is given the dynamite, and he and Jenny climb to the top of a crane while Chowder distracts Constance. DJ throws the dynamite into the chimney, destroying the house. The trio see Nebbercracker with Constance's spirit for the last time before she fades away. DJ apologizes to Nebbercracker for the loss of his house and wife, but Nebbercracker thanks DJ and the kids for freeing him and Constance after 45 years of being trapped. That night, children in their Halloween costumes are lined up at the site of Nebbercracker's house, where DJ, Chowder, and Jenny help him return all of the toys to their owners. Jenny's parents pick her up and DJ and Chowder decide to go out trick-or-treating, which they had previously thought they were too old for.