The House with a Clock in Its Walls

Well, it's that time of year again when Hollywood starts churning out the Halloween type films what with Fall being upon us. We've seen many from our past: "Halloween", "Friday the 13th", "The Strangers", "Purge", last year's "Goosebumps" plus many others. There are typically more than one released during this time, so for our first one to see is "The House with a Clock in Its Walls".

 

It is 1955. Lewis Barnavelt (Owen Vaccaro), after losing his parents, is sent to Michigan to live with his uncle Jonathan (Jack Black). Subsequently, he discovers his uncle is a warlock, and ends up entering a world of magic and scorcery. But this power is not limited to good people--inadvertently, Lewis learns of Isaac Izard (Kyle MacLachlan), an evil wizard who is intent in causing the Apocalypse so he can see what happens afterwards. To facilitate this, Izard has constructed a magical clock with black magic--as long as it exists, it will keep ticking, counting down to doomsday. He died before he finished the clock, but he hid the clock in his house, where Jonathan now resides. Now Lewis, Jonathan and a good friend, Florence Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett) must find the clock before it's too late, and before Isaac's wife, Selena (Renee Elise Goldsberry), gets to it.

 

Others to round out the cast are Colleen Camp as Mrs. Hanchett, Sunny Suljic as Tarby Corrigan, Lorenza Izzo as Mother, Braxton Bjerken as Woody Mingo, Vanessa Anne Williams as Rose Pita Pottinger and Charles Green as Soda Jerk.

 

This was directed by the horror king master, Eli Roth ("Cabin Fever" '02, "Hostel" '05, "Grindhouse" (fake trailer segment "Thanksgiving") "07, "Hostel: Part II" '07, "Inglourious Basterds" (segment "Nation's Pride" uncredited) '09, "The Green Inferno" '13, "Knock Knock" '15, "Death Wish" '18) plus TV and shorts. I'm not typically fond of the horror genre, however this film, presented in a comical format, gave it a whole new slant which makes it more palatable. If this was a straight bore-on drama, it would've been just another banal slasher flick. What makes this a better film is that Roth, a predominantly dramatic director, directing a horror film that is a comedy. His ability to get his actors to be scary but not necessarily horrific was amazing. It was written by Eric Kripke ("Boogeyman" '05, "Haunted" '13) plus TV and shorts, based on a novel by John Bellairs. Again, this writer's style of writing is that of the dramatic horror film, but he, instead, opted to write this film in a comedic format. This certainly made this a fresher, more original storyline. This writer has cut his teeth on a plethora of TV which has served him well, so in writing the two theatrical films that are to his credit, this made writing this film easier with much more effect in how this is to be conveyed to his audience. Other than a couple of slow areas and just a very small lack of continuity, expressly near the beginning, this storyline was uproarious and kept the audience on the edge of their seats. The casting of Jack Black and Cate Blanchett was perfection mostly due to the chemistry. In fact, besides the stars, the house is as much a star of this as Black and Blanchett. This house was wired for sound.

 

If horror with a comical backdrop is your thing, you will love this. I mostly went to see this for the two lead stars, but after viewing it, it was definitely funny and moved quick keeping my attention throughout. Any horror flick that can do that is a well thought-out story. If you want pure escape, grab the popcorn and enjoy this ride.

 

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                       Rated: PG                                         105mins.