Jack and the Haunted House
Episode numeral: XXXV
Original air date: 5/17/03
While traveling at night, Jack encounters a young girl sobbing to herself. She runs away as soon as she notices Jack and he follows her to return the teddy bear she dropped (which clearly resembles the creature from Episode XXXIII). His pursuit leads to an old, dilapidated house of Japanese design. He decides to take a side entrance rather than the front door the girl used and sees the silhouette of a woman sitting next to a fire through the door. As soon as he tries to open it, a horde of moths cuts past him, startling him. The next moment, there is no sign of the woman or the fire.
After entering, Jack experiences several visions showing vague images of the people who lived there and a strange shadow monster that attacks them. He finds a candle and lights it in order to search the house. The entire house looks dilapidated, abandoned and dirty. He finds certain items, such as the model ships the family's son was building. Every time he finds such items, he experiences another flashback. The episode resembles a horror movie at this point, with everything looking scary and with very discomforting sound effects being played.
Jack searches the house until he finally finds the girl. He suggests leaving the house and heads back to the room he came in through, but is baffled when he notices all doors and windows in that room are now gone. After returning to the room in which he found the girl, he is shocked to see the same thing has happened there. He and the girl decide to try to sleep, stating they both feel strangely tired.
Jack's sleep is troubled by further nightmarish visions of the shadowy monster and its attacks on the house's inhabitants. Upon waking up, he notices that the girl is gone. While looking around the room, he faintly hears music and notices a well-lit room behind a doorway. He enters it and sees the girl calmly sitting at a table with three other family members (the mother, father, and brother as seen in Jack's visions) in a well-kept room. Jack angrily shouts his disbelief, that it must be an illusion of some sort, and draws his sword. The father convinces Jack to calm down, sit, and drink tea with them. The small talk completely distracts Jack when they mention the tea is from a region he is familiar with. The girl, however, looks concerned.
When the father asks the son to say something, the son reacts by eerily rolling his eyes up into his skull. He then starts to drool and hunch backwards. Soon after, the mother and father do the same. Jack is brought to his senses and watches a stream of shadowy matter erupt from their mouths. The room vanishes and turns into the ruinous structure it really is, while the shadowy matter accumulates into the shadow beast.
The monster attacks Jack and finally seizes him using tentacles that come out of the floor. He then sends Jack's consciousness into an alternate reality, where there is no environment, only himself, the monster and the family members. They are all tied down, likely to visualize their mind being captive whilst the monster can use their bodies.
Jack somehow levitates his sword using tremendous willpower and cuts his bonds, then fights and eventually defeats the monster. They erupt back into reality, where the night seems to end as Jack comes to. He tells the girl he saw her family, but couldn't save them. Then the father's voice is heard as he calls out to his daughter: all the family members are alive and safe. Satisfied, Jack leaves them in their hug and continues his quest.
Tropes:
- Damsel in Distress: Multiple examples of both female and male victims of this trope; the demon has captured Kuni's family (her brother, mother, and father) and is holding them hostage in another dimension.
- Eldritch Abomination: The demonic entity which has possessed the house, which is just as horrifically unfathomable as it is highly dangerous.
- Haunted House: Obviously, this is the episode's setting. Jack stumbles on an abandoned family home, whose occupants disappeared due to an otherworldly entity which just attacked them without explanation.
- Knight of Cerebus: The demon is decidedly one of the most frightening Monster of the Week characters on the show, and it never has even one comedic moment.
- Nothing Is Scarier: The demon is not seen until the climax of the episode. Even then, we never really find out exactly what it is.
- Playing Against Type: This dark horror-themed episode is one for storyboard artists Aaron Springer and Chris Reccardi, who are generally known for writing the more comedic episodes in the series.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Whenever the demon appears on screen, the animation shifts from its usual outline-free design to a sketchy, high-exposure black and white Line Boil and the soundtrack devolves into cacophonous static. The implication is that whatever this thing is is powerful enough to not only overpower the animated world and characters but also the very film your watching and TV you're watching it on.note
- Your Soul Is Mine!: The demon's goal is to steal any unlucky human souls that come across it. Whether it eats them (or does something else) is not clear.
