Halloween Horrorfest: The House With A Clock In Its Walls

It is once again that time of the year, where for an entire month straight I indulge in my love of the horror genre as I review films in a genre that I have always greatly enjoyed. Kicking things off this month, I take a look at the recent release, The House With A Clock In Its Walls. This one is a fun filled spooktacular with a few decent family friendly scares to keep the kids entertained this season. 

Lewis Barnavelt (played by Owen Vaccaro) is traveling to live with his Uncle Jonathan (played by Jack Black) after the tragic death of his parents. Moving into his Uncle's creaky, old house, Lewis wants to find a sense of normalcy. However, he's in for anything but as his discovers that his Uncle is a Warlock and Jonathan's next door neighbor, Florence Zimmerman (played by Cate Blanchett) is a witch. Upon discovering this, Lewis begs Jonathan to teach him and Jonathan agrees to. Meanwhile, Jonathan and Florence are trying to locate a clock hidden somewhere in Jonathan's house by the house's previous occupant, Issac Izard (played by Kyle MacLachlan). The clock is clearly counting down and while Jonathan and Florence don't know what will happen when it reaches zero, they know it's not good. Lewis makes friends with a popular kid, Tarby Corrigan (played by Sunny Suljic), but when the friendship starts to drift apart Lewis lets him in on his magical secret. They perform a spell to raise the dead, bringing back Issac Izard, who resumes his plot with the mysterious clock and sets to bring about the end of mankind with only Lewis, Jonathan and Florence to try and stop him. 

The film is directed by Eli Roth from a script by Eric Kripke from the book of the same name by John Bellairs, so as far as horror cred goes, this one is pretty rock solid. Eli Roth takes a sharp departure from the more gory horror flicks he's been known for and instead brings a certain early 80's Spielbergian charm to the film, creepy without being too scary with plenty of comedic moments as well to break the tension. Of course, this makes sense as Steven Spielberg is on of the producers on the film. Much like he did with Tobe Hooper on Poltergeist, he took a director known for far more hardcore horror films and had them re-channel it into something a little more family friendly. Kid-centric horror films for quite awhile now have been pretty sorry, watered down affairs, so imagine my delight that this film actually had some decently creepy imagery and a couple decent jump scares too. Still, the film does succumb to some tired plot points, such as Jonathan being needlessly vague to Lewis when if he had just told him the truth, it would have saved them all a lot of trouble. Although, if he had the plot wouldn't have progressed, so...umm...hmm. Still, I wish they'd found a better way to deal with it than the same tired plot points. Despite that, the film conjures up some fun fantastical elements to the film, including a large stained glass window that changes every day and a large, living topiary lion that lives in the backyard (although a recurring joke with said topiary probably reoccurs a couple times too many). The film also has some gorgeous production design, both with bringing it's 1950s period to life as well as the more fantastical elements of the story to the screen. 

The film assembled a great cast starting with Jack Black as Uncle Jonathan, firmly in warm, cuddly teddy bear mode again. The scenes of him bonding with his young nephew as well as teaching him magic added a lot of heart to the film. Cate Blanchett is wonderful as always as Florence and makes for a great pair with Jack Black as the two bring their characters' feisty relationship to life. There is some tragedy in her character's past that Blanchett plays beautifully as  Lewis' arrival might give her the chance to start a new chapter in her life. Owen Vaccaro is great as Lewis and manages to carry large parts of the film with easy. He does a great job of capturing his character, thrust into a new place and the unease of not fitting in, as well as the fact that he's still trying to come to term with the loss of his parents. Yet, he also perfectly captures the joy his character experiences as a whole new world is opened to him by Jonathan and Florence. Kyle MacLachlan is good addition as the villain, Issac Izard, and is clearly having a ball playing the villain. Yet, there are smaller moments when it's revealed the reason he want's to destroy mankind and MacLachlan plays it so perfectly it was easy to see how his character reached to conclusion he did. It's still completely insane, but at least it makes sense. That's more than can be said for some movie villains. 

The House With A Clock in Its Walls is a fun and spooky addition to the pantheon on kid friendly Halloween fare while actually being genuinely creepy at times. With a collection of good performances and solid direction from Eli Roth, this is a movie I enjoyed plenty know and would have devoured as a kid. It isn't exactly groundbreaking as far as family friendly fantasy films go, but at the same time it's better than most recent offerings.