"The Haunting Of Miss McGravy's House" is the Halloween special of the Disney Channel animated series Kiff.
Synopsis[]
Kiff and her friends haunt a house on Halloween to save it from being sold.
Plot[]
On the Friday before October 31st, Kiff and Barry, joined by Trevor, Renée, Candle, and Reggie, help Table Town's residents decorate and prepare for Halloween. Afterwards, they make their way to Table Town Middle School by taking a shortcut through the backyard of Miss McGravy's house. At school, the children line up for Helen's "Helenween" haunted house, where Principal Secretary hands them out "safety kazoos" to blow in case they become too frightened, as "the silly sound reminds you that it's all just make believe". However, the haunted house turns out to be an underwhelming affair themed entirely around Helen.
After school, Kiff and her friends visit Miss McGravy's house for a hangout and are shocked to discover that newly-licensed realtor Lance Contract has sold away the house. Hiding in the treehouse in the backyard, the children overhear the house's new yuppie tenants, Markus and Tarryn Plue, making plans to completely renovate the yard, including tearing down the treehouse. The children, especially Kiff, are devastated by the news, and begin reminiscing about their many memories hanging out in the yard, which they have documented in photos taped to the treehouse's walls.
On Halloween, Kiff and Barry remain depressed about Miss McGravy's house, though their other friends have moved on. Nevertheless, Kiff hatches a scheme to save the house before the Plues return that day to pick up the house's keys, and convinces her friends to all join along with the plan at the expense of missing out on trick-or-treating. Dressed up as monsters (with the exception of Renée, who dresses up as an egg), the children visit Miss McGravy's house with a plan to scare the Plues into thinking the house is haunted. Inside, Candle and Trevor make the living room more spooky-looking, while in the kitchen, Reggie installs remote-controlled devices inside various compartments to make them appear to open and close by themselves.
Soon, however, actual ghostly occurences begin to unfold inside the house. An invisible force hands Reggie his screwdriver, a painting's eyes stare at Kiff, curtains start fluttering without wind, the main power switch turns itself off whenever Barry tries to turn it on, and Kiff encounters a dark figure in a hallway. Downstairs, the door to one room opens by itself, which Kiff assumes to be Reggie's doing, though he denies it. Inside the room, the children find a candlelit table with place cards bearing each of their names. Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blows and slams the door shut. The terrified children are forcibly seated at the table, realizing too late that the house is indeed haunted. The wind blows out the candle's flame, enveloping the room in darkness.
The children all find themselves trapped in separate voids, forced to face some of their deepest fears. Renée is horrified by the sight of a single cracked egg. Candle finds a pile of jewelry, which comes to life and attacks her after she wears some of it. Reggie comes across a TV with a plugged-in video game console, which he tries to boot up, only for a demon to crawl out of the TV screen. Trevor is transported to a party full of ghostly high school students, where he is ignored and has his joke stolen by one of the other partygoers. Kiff is seated at a table with a crazed elderly version of herself, who reacts to Kiff's mention of Barry by saying that she has not heard Barry's name in years, to Kiff's terror. In a live-action sequence, Barry finds himself in a white void being petted by a hand, to his great discomfort.
"Old Lady Kiff" starts madly crawling across the table to reach Kiff at the other end. Kiff then realizes that she still has her safety kazoo, which she uses to snap herself and her friends back to reality (including Reggie, who managed to befriend the demon and has spent the entire time gaming with her). The children rush to get out of the house, but ghostly forces pursue them and block the house's exit points. While the children hide, Kiff recalls that the basement has a glassless window that they can escape freely out of. Finding the basement door locked, the children are forced to use a dumbwaiter to reach the basement. Kiff lifts each of her friends up to freedom through the elevated basement window, but is unable to reach Barry's outstretched hand for him to pull her out as well. Kiff then finds herself cornered by the apparition of her elderly self, who smashes Kiff's safety kazoo. Barry finally manages to fit the house's "Sold" sign through the window for Kiff to grab onto, and he pulls her out just in time.
As Kiff and her friends celebrate their successful escape, they suddenly find their surroundings morphing into the house's interior and discover that they are still trapped inside. As the ghosts close in on the children, Kiff walks up to them to beg for mercy, explaining that she and her friends simply wanted to stop the house from being sold away. Hearing this, the ghosts, named Diego and Tyler, reveal that they, as the house's true owners, were actually also trying to scare the new tenants away, and mistakenly assumed the children were the tenants.
At that moment, the Plues arrive at the house with Lance Contract, only to be scared senseless by Diego and Tyler, who tear up the Plues' invalid deed to the house. Kiff sets aside the Plues and a confused Contract to explain the situation to them. As a show of thanks, the ghosts throw a candy-filled party at the house to make up for the children missing trick-or-treating. Helen pulls up in her car with her fellow faculty members, who all left "Helenween" early, and asks if they can join the party, so the ghosts invite all of Table Town as well. While the party goes on, Kiff privately visits the treehouse to tape a picture from that night to the wall.
Cast[]
- Kimiko Glenn as Kiff Chatterley
- H. Michael Croner as Barry Buns and Diego
- Eric Bauza as Reggie, Lance Contract, and Mr. Ri'Peppa
- Tom Kenny as Trevor Angstrom and Markus Plue
- Vella Lovell as Candle Fox
- Mary Mack as Renée du Bedat
- Nic Smal as Principal Secretary
- Lucy Heavens as Helen
- Jimmy Fowlie as Tyler and Tarryn Plue
Song[]
- "Creeping Closer"
Trivia[]
- Opening Sponsor: King Kazoo
- The episode's title references the 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.
- This is the third episode in the series to be a full episode instead of in segments, following "Principal Dance Socks" and "Trevor's Rockin' Halloween Bash".
- This is the second Halloween special in the series, following "Trevor's Rockin' Halloween Bash".
- This is the third episode, following "Everyday I'm Riddlin' Riddlin'" and "Blooper Quest", to feature a straight-to-episode transition after the title card.
- The episode features a special Halloween-themed "Spooky version" of the theme song and opening sequence. This version updates the characters featured in the crowd shot, adding Trollie, Flam Bingo, Reggie, Pat Chatterley, Nick Namé, Mr. Ri'Peppa, Beverly, Chubbles Wubbington, two goats from the Wall of Goat, and a completely new character, and removing Bigby Hind, Dr. Lyon, Ghost Grannie, Miss Moufflé, and the biker lady.
- The action buttons of the game controllers in Reggie's nightmare are modeled after those of Xbox controllers, while the TV's "VHR" functionality parodies the VHS.
- The demon in Reggie's nightmare is based on Samara Morgan from the 2002 film The Ring, and is seen crawling out of a TV screen in a similar vein to Morgan.
- Reggie and the demon play a parody of the 1978 video game Space Invaders.
- The episode was first teased in two behind-the-scenes videos posted on Threads by creator Nic Smal on August 16, 2023, which show small sections of the episode's script, as well as the initials of the episode's title.[1]
- A "Great Rubber Boom" poster is seen in the treehouse.
- The picture of Barry and Renée reacting to Trevor being stuck in Miss McGravy's tire swing parodies the "two Soyjaks pointing" Internet meme.
- It is revealed that Kiff's missing ear chunk was caused by an unspecified incident that took place in Miss McGravy's backyard. Kiff's friends reminisce over the incident while looking through their old photos taken in the yard, but Kiff leaves the treehouse before Barry can invite her to reminisce with them, leaving the exact cause of her missing ear chunk still unexplained.
Continuity[]
- Reggie's cellphone wallpaper is the picture he took (and edited to add a sticker of himself) of Kiff with her mouth wide open in "Hungee Squirrel".
- Pictures calling back to previous episodes are seen hanging in the treehouse: a poster for Café Penguino's Tuesday brunch (from "Brunch DJ"), a picture of Kiff and Barry riding a roller coaster and a Saul Snart: Mole Cop poster (both from "Two for One Hot Dogs"), and Kiff's "Hungee Squirrel" meme photo (from "Hungee Squirrel").
- Reggie butt dials a second time, following "Dial B for Butt".
- Miss McGravy is said to have moved to Ottoman Flats, which was previously mentioned as the location of Sample Con in "Weekly Grocery Shop".
- An instrumental version of "Party On, Scarm!" from "Trevor's Rockin' Halloween Bash" is heard at the party.
International premieres[]
- October 16, 2024 (United Kingdom & Ireland)
Gallery[]
Screenshots[]
Posters[]
References[]
- ↑ Smal, Nic (August 16, 2023). "“Listen, I know you’re trying to work and all, but have you considered attempting to take this rope?”". Retrieved on September 13, 2024.
External links[]
v - e - d | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|