‘House’ hands out sour grapes for Halloween

With Halloween rapidly bearing down upon us, the Discovery Channel’s “Monster House” series has found the ideal time to work its makeover magic for a quirky homeowner with some spooky ideas about his house’s new vibe (at 8 tonight).

The owner is Mike Muir, lead singer for the punk-metal band Suicidal Tendencies. His modest Southland bungalow, obscured from the street by an overgrown tangle of palmy vegetation, is filled with kitschy artifacts reflecting his interest in Third World cultures. But after 10 years in the house, Muir is eager to pull it all together with a unifying theme that gooses the exoticism into something deeper and darker, yet retaining a sense of fun and whimsy.

It’s a tall order, but host and crew boss Steve Watson is big on challenges. For his 13th project in this, the show’s second season, he gets down to the usual order of business: recruiting five project experts who will be given five days to “transform a rock ‘n’ roll bachelor pad into a black magic manor fit for a prince of darkness.”

Alas, the devil is in the details. At a brainstorming session to plan the new look, the energy is electric. But once it’s time to actually breathe life into the ideas with some elbow grease, the project begins jumping the tracks. Ego clashes, temper tantrums and a general lack of inter-team communication keeps progress at low ebb through midweek. One of the team finally feels it necessary to gather everyone around for a pep talk. (Had he not overslept the next day, his message might have carried more weight -- but then again, probably not.)

Even host Watson steps in to try to rally the troops.

Will the crew be able to finish the project by the witching hour on Friday as planned? Unfortunately, with all the sour bickering that has gone on, it’s hard to care about the goal when the workers clearly don’t. Solitary types who don’t feel the need to communicate may be great artisans in their field, but on a TV show that’s trying to generate some Halloween fun, they’re no treat.