| NOTICE! The Haunting of Miss McGravy's House is the article of the month! |
"The Haunting of Miss McGravy's House" is a special episode of Kiff. It aired as a standalone double-length special between seasons 1 and 2 of the series,[1] and serves as the thirty-first episode and the sixty-first and sixty-second segments overall.
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 and characters[]
Voice credits[]
- Kimiko Glenn as Kiff Chatterley
- H. Michael Croner as Barry Buns and Diego
- Jimmy Fowlie as Tyler and Tarryn Plue
- Eric Bauza as Reggie and Lance Contract
- Vella Lovell as Candle Fox
- Tom Kenny as Trevor Angstrom and Markus Plue
- Mary Mack as Renée du Bedat
- Lucy Heavens as Helen
- Nic Smal as Principal Secretary
Additional voices[]
- Eric Bauza as Mr. RiPeppa
Appearances[]
- Kiff Chatterley
- Barry Buns
- Trevor Angstrom
- Reggie
- Renée du Bedat
- Candle Fox
- Principal Secretary
- Helen
- Lance Contract
- Markus Plue (debut)
- Tarryn Plue (debut)
- Diego (debut)
- Tyler (debut)
- Mr. RiPeppa
- Dan Hill (non-speaking)
- Roy Fox (non-speaking)
- Liz K. (non-speaking)
- Gareth (non-speaking)
- Snekole (non-speaking)
- Mav (non-speaking)
- Billiam (non-speaking)
- Sweepy Steve (non-speaking)
- Kyle Lyon (non-speaking, imagined)
- Michaela Oats (non-speaking, imagined)
- Danny Wibbon (non-speaking, imagined)
- Miss Deer Teacher (non-speaking)
- Chinchilla Girl (non-speaking)
- Teenage Dog Girl (non-speaking)
- Scarm Scaremly (pictured)
- Miss McGravy (mentioned)
- Harry Buns (mentioned)
Locations[]
Songs[]
- "Creeping Closer" - written by Nic Smal and Lucy Heavens
Trivia[]
- Opening sponsor: King Kazoo.
- This is the second Halloween special of 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.
- It is also the first episode to immediately start with a song.
- 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. RiPeppa, 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.
Cultural references[]
- The episode's title references the 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.
- The picture of Barry and Renée reacting to Trevor being stuck in Miss McGravy's tire swing parodies the "two Soyjaks pointing" Internet meme.
- 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.
Continuity[]
- The Fox mansion spiders make their third appearance, following "Trevor's Rockin' Halloween Bash" and "Snow More Ketchup".
- 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".
- A "Rubber Boom" poster is seen in the treehouse.
- 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").
- This is the second episode, following "Lost and Found", to mention Kiff's missing ear chunk, which she is revealed to have lost in 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.
- 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 "The Scarm Song" from "Trevor's Rockin' Halloween Bash" is heard at the party.
Production[]
- The episode was first teased in two behind-the-scenes videos posted on Threads by Nic Smal in August 2023, which show small sections of the episode's script, as well as the initials of the episode's title.[2]
Broadcasting[]
- The episode aired alongside other Halloween-themed episodes of Big City Greens, Primos, and Zombies: The Re-Animated Series in a block titled "Animation Fright Night", as part of Disney Channel's 2024 month-long "Monstober" celebration.[3]
- A "Creeping Closer" digital single was released on October 4, 2024, one day before the episode's air date.
Videos[]
References[]
- ↑ Disney Branded Television Orders Kiff -Themed Halloween and Christmas Specials For 2024’ Starting With “The Haunting Of Miss McGravy’s House”. DTVA News (September 23, 2024). Retrieved on September 24, 2024.
- ↑ Smal, Nic (August 16, 2023). “Listen, I know you’re trying to work and all, but have you considered attempting to take this rope?”. Threads. Retrieved on September 13, 2024.
- ↑ Disney Channel Sets Epic Return Of “Monstober” With “Animation Fright Night” Slated For October 5.. DTVA News (September 11, 2024). Retrieved on September 13, 2024.