Every generation has its defining holiday films, and if you’re an early-2000s kid like me, you won’t be surprised to hear that I consider Monster House one of the greatest Halloween movies ever. It’s definitely my all-time favorite.
But, if you’re clueless about the 2006 masterpiece, I’ll fill you in quickly(ish). Monster House follows three preteens named DJ, Chowder, and Jenny who discover that the creepy old house across the street is alive. The cult classic is packed with voice talent that keeps the humor sharp and the characters lively: Steve Buscemi, Jason Lee, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kevin James, Catherine O’Hara, and Fred Willard, to name a few.
The movie pulls off something rare for a family-friendly feature: it layers in sly nods to classic horror films and icons. From Stephen King’s The Monkey to subtle winks at Nosferatu and Poltergeist, it rewards horror fans while still being super fun for kids. The jokes are genuinely hilarious and perfectly in tune with the early-2000s vibe, though the story is set in 1983.
Speaking of setting, did you know the town of Mayville in Monster House is based on the real-life Mayville, Wisconsin? It’s just an hour’s drive from Milwaukee, where co-writers, Rob Schrab and Dan Harmon, first began shaping the story. Although Wisconsin isn’t named on-screen, both writers have talked about the inspiration, and all signs point back to Schrab’s childhood Mayville neighborhood.
After some digging, I came across a local rumor that one of the houses said to inspire the film was demolished around 2018 and replaced with a funeral home parking lot (how fitting). Some Mayville residents insist that old house was haunted, though I couldn’t verify those claims. Looking at a map of the site, I noticed the house once stood just two blocks from an Oak Street, which happens to be the name of the street where DJ and Mr. Nebbercracker live in the movie.
Aside from a few scattered Reddit comments, I couldn’t find much ghost lore tied to that house, so local audio engineer Ele Gallegos and I traveled to the town of Mayville to see what we could learn from the residents. Were there any truths behind any of these claims?
Our first stop was the Mayville Historical Society, where we met local historian David Mueller. He confirmed the Walnut Street house had existed and said his grandparents owned it for many years, though he never heard of any hauntings during their time there. The property changed hands several times before it was finally demolished. By then, David noted, “it might have just looked haunted.”
From there, we headed to The Audubon Inn (once known as the Beaumont Hotel), which some locals also say is haunted. It was closed, so we stopped next door at Cardinal Lanes and met Alexis Mejaki. A proud Mayville native, Alexis was excited to share her love for Monster House with other people who “get it.” Best of all, she had just created a drink special called the “Monster House” the day before we arrived. We ordered one and settled in to hear her ghostly stories.
Alexis verified the building next door is indeed haunted and that spirits sometimes linger around lanes seven and eight of their bowling alley, or down in the basement. “There actually used to be tunnels connecting this building to the Audubon that are all closed off now,” she explained. “But if you go downstairs, you’ll get sudden chills in certain spots and the lights will sometimes flicker.”
She added that many spots in Mayville carry similar ghost stories, most notably the old Red Brick School building in the heart of town. “We’d walk by that building and see faces inside,” she recalled. “At the time it was completely abandoned, and lights would randomly turn on and off.” During our visit, we heard similar accounts about that same building.
Even if this all turns out not to be the actual inspiration and we’re just chasing bad leads—that is journalism, after all—I still can’t help seeing the similarities between the old Walnut Street house and the one in the film. Don’t you?
2017 Realtor photo of the Walnut Street property (left) and a screen grab of the house in Monster House (right)
Harmon and Schrab spent the ’90s honing their comedy chops in the “big city” of Milwaukee. Comic book artist Rob Schrab, creator of Scud: The Disposable Assassin, attended the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD) before meeting Dan Harmon, later the creator of Community. The two writers teamed up in the underground troupe The Dead Alewives at ComedySportz Milwaukee.
FUN FACT: Milwaukee Record co-founder and editor Matt Wild is also from Mayville. “I remember [Monster House] making a bit of a local splash when it was released,” Wild says. “Mayville is a fairly quiet city of about 5,000, but there are plenty of quirks to be found.”
The fictional town shows the “Mayville Luxury Towers” being built on a drained lake right behind DJ’s house. I wondered if that mirrored a real project near Rob Schrab’s childhood home. With research help from local librarian and historian Sheila Steger, I learned there was one. The building that now houses Parkview Early Learning Center went up in the late 1980s and opened in fall 1992, right along the backyards of Oak Street residents—much like in the movie. That construction project would have dominated Rob’s neighborhood during the late ’80s, likely the years when he first began sharpening his storytelling skills.
“Originally it was the Dodge County Teachers College, which closed in 1972 and was demolished,” Sheila explained. “When it reopened, I remember it being called the little kids’ school. It was for kindergarten through fourth grade.”
Monster House screen grab showing the construction site behind Oak Street, in the fictional town of Mayville
And the stories kept coming. Another Mayville legend, Raymond “Peggy” McEathron (1909–1995), nicknamed Mr. Mayville, was a jazz musician and the uncle of Golden-Age performer Marni Nixon, the famed “ghost voice” for Audrey Hepburn, Natalie Wood, and many others. His old instruments are now retired and on display at the Mayville Limestone School Museum.
Mr. Mayville’s creaky old house, long gone now, overlooked the Red Brick School playground. Though remembered as being a gentle and kind old man, his home looked haunted. “The rumor is that the kids would stare at that old house from recess and get spooked by it,” says Sheila Steger. For what it’s worth, in 1983 Mr. Mayville would have been about the same age as Mr. Nebbercracker in the movie.
Around the same years that Harmon and Schrab (and Matt Wild, of course) were glued to cheesy late-night horrors, a real Wisconsin haunting was playing out nearby. In the late ’80s, the Tallman family in Horicon said their new home turned hostile: objects moved on their own, strange voices called out, glowing eyes appeared at night, and much more. The story made national news, and several Dodge County residents still talk about “those haunted bunk beds.”
The terror eventually drove the family out, and their story aired on a special Halloween episode of Unsolved Mysteries. The parallels to Monster House are hard to ignore; both about a quiet Midwestern home that seems to be alive and hungry for children. Whether or not Harmon or Schrab knew about the Tallman case (hard to believe they didn’t), both stories feel born from the same haunted Wisconsin soil.
We heard some chatter that the old Walnut Street house once hosted Dungeons & Dragons sessions in its basement, but I couldn’t verify that those campaigns ever really happened. Notably, one of Schrab’s first major productions in Milwaukee (with Harmon) was D&D-related, but we couldn’t confirm whether he ever joined those hometown basement campaigns of the ’80s. It is worth mentioning that Dungeons & Dragons originated about 60 miles south in Lake Geneva in 1974.
I‘ll finally get to watch Monster House on the big screen for the first time, thanks to Milwaukee Film’s Halloween program Scareville. The Halloween classic comes to the Oriental Theatre on October 11 and 12, its first Milwaukee screenings since the theatrical premiere in 2006.
Milwaukee Film’s Social Media and Digital Coordinator Jolee Mallmann has pushed for a local screening for years, and it feels like all that persistence has finally paid off. “It’s the perfect story to portray that slight melancholy, but full-of-hope feeling that follows the end of childhood and the last year of trick-or-treating,” Jolee said.
“For Milwaukeeans and Wisconsin filmmakers in particular, Monster House is a testament to the kind of artful storytellers that our state cultivates,” they added. “Every year I give it a re-watch, the nostalgia becomes more profound.”
In their latest episode of Popped Ones, Jolee sat down with Milwaukee Film Black Lens and Scareville programmer Ty Williams. They talk through the films in the Halloween-themed lineup, which one Ty is most excited to see, and why supporting Milwaukee Film matters.
“The Scareville program is a list of horror films programmed by myself and Milwaukee Film Executive Director Susan Kerns. The rankings are inspired by the Scoville scale, which measures the spiciness of foods,” Ty explained. “But we use it to rate how scary a movie might be for general audiences.” For what it’s worth, Monster House lands at level 1, making it the least scary of the lineup.
Watch the new episode of Popped Ones, with guest Ty Williams, here:
Let this be your reminder to support your local library, wander through your town’s museums, and always keep candy ready for trick-or-treaters. And look, I know that screenwriters are rarely involved in the on-screen decisions (especially in animation), and I’m aware of the comments about later script changes. Still, where’s all the fun in letting that stop the speculations?
For more of my writing and film work, follow me on Substack (“Belly of the Well”) or Instagram @addemsmith. I’ll be attending the October 12 screening of Monster House, and if you’re not there, that’s the ultimate in-your-face disgrace!
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