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“ | Get off my lawn! | „ |
~ Nebbercracker's most famous quote.
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“ | Forty-five years... We have been trapped for forty-five years, and now... we're free. (chuckles) We're free! (laughs) Thank you, friend! (laughs again) Thank you all! (laughs once more) We're free! | „ |
~ Horace expressing joy that both he and Constance are free from their cursed house, while thanking DJ, Chowder, and Jenny for freeing them. |
Horace Nebbercracker is the overarching protagonist of the 2006 animated supernatural-horror film Monster House.
He is DJ's crabby neighbor. Although he is widely known as a grouchy old man who shoos away anyone that sets foot on his lawn, Nebbercracker is actually a desperate, tragic individual that tries to keep his deceased wife's murderous rage in check and keep children who pass by safe from her by pretending to be mean as hard as he could.
He was voiced by Steve Buscemi, who also played Wayne the Werewolf from the Hotel Transylvania franchise, Scamper the Rabbit from Igor, Ed Chilton from Ed And His Dead Mother, Danny McGrath from Billy Madison, and Donny Kerabatsos in The Big Lebowski.
Personality[]
“ | And that night... That one night of every year... I had to take precautions. I had to... I had to... | „ |
~ Mr. Nebbercracker explaining to the children why he was acting so violently towards others. |
From adulthood, Nebbercracker was a rather caring and understanding person, looking passed the overweight appearance of Constance who was treated as a sideshow attraction; to the point of even falling in love with her and taking her from her former life. He soon found a place where the two of them could build a life for themselves, where he also built his house.
Despite how he appeared to the neighborhood in present time, Nebbercracker does love children, realizing none of them had malicious intent, instead having fun on Halloween. To this end, he even protected some children from his wife who tried attacking them with an axe, however, this ended up costing the life of his wife.
Following Constance becoming their house and attacking the neighborhood children who comes near her, he still continued protecting the children from his vengeful wife. Knowing about his wife's hatred, while still caring about her and the children, Nebbercracker made himself appear like a hateful and cranky person, stealing children's toys that lands on his front lawn to keep them safe from his house; continuing on with this routine until becoming an old man.
His ongoing protection of children from Constance throughout the years without revealing what his house really is has made him an unsung hero. However, he truly hates the lengths that he had to go through to protect the children and became freed from this after DJ, Chowder, and Jenny freed him and Constance from their prison, causing him to return all the things that he stole from the children; becoming friends with the three who saved him and his beloved wife.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Mr. Nebbercracker, appears to be mean and heartless to anyone on his lawn, but only because he is afraid his house will attack the person. If any object lands on his lawn, he takes it, and keeps it in his basement. He is most likely in his sixties or seventies, as he's pretty slow on his feet.
When he was a young man, he met an obese woman, Constance, at a circus and fell in love with her.
That night, when Constance was locked in the circus car (possibly due to many people eventually disgusted with her looks to the point that the manager locked her up and let the children make fun of her), Nebbercracker helped her escape from the circus and married her. Only a little later, their house began construction, and that's when the trouble began as their happiness proved short-lived. Children always mocked Constance for her body like her days back in circus whenever they met, and often threw eggs, tomatoes, and rocks at her. This ultimately led to the tragedy, that both change Nebbercracker's life and set the whole events of the movie.
The tragedy occurred in at Halloween, the last day where children laughed at Constance, and she said she was going to "rip them to bits". Mr. Nebbercracker, whom see her complain over the children's bullying, told her, "As long as I'm here, I will never let anybody hurt you." However, just as he said so, the children continued their throwing, which now in a more aggressive manner. The enraged Constance then uses the axe that Nebbercracker was holding to hurt the children, but ended up knocked away in attempt to take the axe back. This made her lose her footing, and to regain her unruly balance, she pulled accidentally the switch on the cement mixer, falling in with a lump of liquid concrete, and was killed.
Nebbercracker then finished the house for Constance's sake. Not long afterwards, he sense his wife's presence and learned that both her death, and love for Nebbercracker led her to possess the house. This made him take precautions on that one night of every year, Halloween; he was aware that Constance's spirit caused the house to come alive, and there was the risk of the house attacking innocent children trick-or-treating and even adults. He knows that the pain and suffering that his wife had in her lifetime has made her into a tricky but savage, bloodthirsty, and murderous monstrosity of her former self.
Nebbercracker's Absence[]
45 years have passed since he kept anyone away from the harm that can be inflicted by the ghost of his enraged Constance. This has turned him to be a somewhat mean person from the outside, as he was haunted by the change of his wife as the possessed house; he had taken any precautions to keep Constance from harming everyone that approach her, this would mean many death to innocent people. Her rage over her painful past would drive her to devour and kill anyone and anything that she met. While mean, his behavior is somewhat erratic to the point where at least 2 individuals aware with what he has hid during that time: DJ and Bones. Bones aware with what Mr. Nebbercracker hid from those whom he antagonize, but not as much as DJ who was spying on him.
One day, when Chowder accidentally had his basketball accidentally flew onto Nebbercracker's lawn and prompt DJ to immediately bring it back, Nebbercracker ambushes and storms towards him. DJ tries to calm him down, but this hasn't changed Nebbercracker's mind to scare him further. Nebbercracker proceeds by lifting him upwards and unleashed several tantrums on his face. This, however, made a great mistake; due to his elderly age, he forgot that his body is no longer able to endure the boy's weight and he had a heart attack at the same time. His bones cracked in process, causing him to fall unconscious on DJ's body.
Constance's Reawakening[]
When Nebbercracker was immediately brought to the hospital, Constance immediately awakened from her years of slumber. The house's fireplace started burning on it's own, and with both the house and her lawn under her control. She caused them to emit groaning voices as the ambulance approaches to carry her husband away. As the medics put Nebbercracker's body on a carriage, she possesses grass on the lawn and tried to prevent them from leaving, but failed. None of anyone aware with this, while her spirit, from the house's window, glares on unsuspecting DJ and Chowder, causes it to crack before they left.
Constance's Reign of Terror[]
What was feared by Nebbercracker ultimately comes true: without anyone to keep her in check, her murderous self possesses the house and starts her killing spree. She eats Bones, and nearly kills Chowder, DJ, and Jenny. The trio tries to stop her, but two policemen interfere and arrest them, unaware about what they were attempting to do. Everything got worse as the policemen and the children were ultimately devoured alive, though the children escaped after escaping from her clutches and learned some information of her backstory.
In the hospital, when Nebbercracker nearly recovers, he realized that he has left Constance, she started her killing spree, and quickly stole one of the ambulances in the hospital to stop her from doing further damage.
Final Confrontation[]
He nearly crashed on DJ as he arrived. Mistaken as a ghost, Jenny and Chowder threw him with rocks out of fear, which he shrugged off and forced them away. He stopped them for a moment as he realized how long he was in the hospital. Watching a group of children in costumes from afar, he was scared and confronted by his already awakened house. DJ, against his friends' wishes, confronts him and revealed that he knew some of her past.
Nebbercracker starts to get mad, but DJ calmed him down, and ask him about the truth. Nebbercracker then reveals his encounter with Constance and her later death. He spent four decades trying to protect the kids by scaring them and pretending to be mean so they’ll leave the house alone, which made DJ realize that Constance was behind everything, and she never crossed to the afterlife. Nebbercracker blamed himself for what happened to her, and was willing to keep going for as long as he could to keep DJ and the kids safe.
DJ knew he can’t let himself do that, knowing how much he’s been through. He then convinced him to let Constance go, telling him that he’s not alone. But before the further action taken as Nebbercracker realized what was something that he had to do, Constance is completely enraged by DJ making him turn his back on her, succumbed to her urge to kill: she assimilated nearby trees and turned them into hands, and starts chasing her husband and the children. She smashes a nearby electrical pole, prompting them to make their way to the construction site. During the chase, Nebbercracker was exhausted from running, and seemingly squashed by Constance. However, he survived and Constance was not hitting him. Instead, she only chases after DJ, Jenny, and Chowder, wanting to kill them for getting in the way and making Nebbercracker let her go, much to his horror, as he quickly called her off, throwing a brick at her to get her attention on him.
Though still furious, Constance calmed down, and they had a brief conversation. Here, Constance expresses a degree of remorse over the carnage that she has done, and Nebbercracker said that he has done the best for her. But now, her suffering must be over as he reveals the dynamite to blow up the house that has changed her. Constance was shocked with this and started to get furious, but Nebbercracker argues, tried to blow the house up with the dynamite, and trying to tell Constance that it was the best for her. Suddenly, Constance disarmed him and ultimately lost her ability to reasoning, as she has succumbed to her murderous instinct to kill.
Fortunately, the children interfered, and with this, he left the task of destruction to DJ. After DJ successfully destroyed the house, he spent his final moments with Constance's spirit who was now free from the house, and thanked him saying that "45 years, we've been trapped for 45 years, and now we're free!". That Halloween night, instead of candy, he handed out items he previously confiscated as his apology.
What became of Horace Nebbercracker after the incident is unknown, but Chowder tells DJ that he assumes Horace might go on vacation, get some color and maybe meet someone new, perhaps a "nice beach house".
Trivia[]
- He is considered to be one of the few Sony Pictures animated heroes who does not reveal to be good at first.
External Links[]
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Heroes | ||
DJ Walters | Chowder | Jenny Bennett | Horace Nebbercracker |