The Hauntening

Max Greenfield (2013)

"The Hauntening" is the third episode of the sixth season of the American animated comedy series Bob's Burgers and the 91st episode overall. It was written by Steven Davis and Kevin Yu who won an Annie Award and it was directed by Jennifer Coyle. Guest star is Max Greenfield who voices boyband member Boo Boo. It aired first in the US on October 18, 2015 at Fox Network. In this episode the Belcher family goes to a haunted house on Halloween where the parents want to scare their children, especially Louise.

Plot

In the family restaurant Bob and Linda Belcher tell their regular customer Teddy that they go to a haunted house with their children every year on Halloween. Louise does not look forward to this because she never got scared there even though she wants to be scared. The parents explain that they have planned such a one themselves this time. Louise asks her siblings Tina and Gene if they know anything about that which they deny.

Linda and Bob show the children around the haunted house but do not succeed to scare them. Louise gets the idea to scare the parents, therefore the children hide in a pile of leaves in the garden and jump out of it when they come there. The family decides to go home but there is not enough air in one of the car tires. They see a man in the street who does not help them and who looks threatening. They go inside the house and Bob tries to call a towing service. When they hear strange sounds from the basement, they go downstairs looking for the source of the sounds but then fearfully walk back upstairs. The man who they have seen before tries to open the front door so that the family goes to the upper floor. When they notice that the man is inside the house, they lock themselves in the bathroom. As the man tries to come into the bathroom, the family climbs through the window to the projecting roof. Three hooded figures appear on the lawn outside, and then a large circular area of grass seemingly catches fire around the house. When Louise sees the man at the window, she screams with fear. Linda takes a photograph of her and the family explains to her that it all was a trick to get her scared. Gene and Tina were also privy to the plan.

While the children scared their parents in the garden, Teddy deflated the tire and to Bob's dismay, cut the car's brake line. Mort was in the basement making the strange sounds, caused by him accidentally throwing out his back while trying to pick up a large pickaxe. The house belongs to his mother and her boyfriend is the man who scared Louise. The latter enjoys that and thanks her family. After the Belchers went back home, they watch the music video of "I Love U So Much (It's Scary)" by the boyband Boyz 4 Now from the episode of the same name.

Reception

Alasdair Wilkins of the A.V. Club gave this episode a "B" and wrote: "Over the course of the episode, though, [Louise] shifts, first to her more familiar hellion role and then into what she fundamentally is, which is a little kid, and in this case a scared little kid. This is also a great episode for Louise being brutally honest in her comments and provoking similar candor right back: Look at how readily Bob admits that, yeah, being old is scary, or that the kids jumping out of a bunch of leaves was way more effective than his and Linda’s elaborate haunted house. Those exchanges would be amusing enough if they were just between two strangers, but it becomes properly hilarious because of our familiarity with Louise and Bob’s personalities, perspectives, and mannerisms, not to mention Schaal’s and H. Jon Benjamin’s performance."^[1]

Steven Davis and Kelvin Yu received an Annie Award in the category "Outstanding Achievement, Writing in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production" for this episode's script.^[2]

References

External links

• The Hauntening at the Internet Movie Database