From watching The House with a Clock in Its Walls it is quite clear what Universal Pictures wanted from the film — the beginning of a fantasy/horror franchise for teenagers in the same vein as the Harry Potter films or the Goosebumps books. In fact, for much of its runtime, The House with a Clock in Its Walls feels like it was inspired by some of the scarier scenes in the above-mentioned fantasy films. It wouldn’t even surprise me if the producers went looking for a novel series to interpret cinematically that would best suit their plan. Though there are many similarities between this and John Bellairs’ 1973 book by the same name, it isn’t a completely faithful interpretation thematically.

Set in 1955, the story here is that recently orphaned 10-year-old Lewis Barnavelt (Owen Vaccaro) has to live with his Uncle Jonathan Barnavel (Jack Black) in a magical old house packing surprises in every corner. Amusingly enough, Jonathan himself is a barely competent warlock. He lives next to a friend named Florence Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett) who is a witch, and thankfully better at spells than him. Of course, Lewis starts to learn the ways of magic and unlocking the secrets of the house, until he mistakenly raises from the dead the powerful and evil couple who previously owned the house.

Considering the nature of the beast, it is curious why, of all the filmmakers in the world, Universal Pictures chose Eli Roth to direct. For a family-focused fantasy/horror film of this sort to work, it needs a bit of undefinable magic. Even one of the best auteurs of that sort of a thing, Tim Burton, is a hit or a miss director. Eli Roth — who you may recall also starred as Donny “The Bear Jew” Donowitz in Quentin Tarantino’s revisionist war film Inglourious Basterds (2009) — has made a series of incredibly violent gory films that have gotten worse as his career has progressed since his glory days with Cabin Fever (2001) and Hostel (2005). Initially, he was known as one of the directors to kick start the ‘torture porn’ subgenre. Not exactly the right resume for a creepier version of Harry Potter.

The House with a Clock in Its Walls has a certain charm in its weirdness but is certainly not recommended for young kids

The film’s scary scenes are disappointing in terms of technique. Eli Roth relies on tired jump scares that fall flat. Interestingly, some of the imagery really pushes the envelope, especially for a PG-13 film. While I enjoyed this, I’d honestly recommend guardians not bring in young kids into The House with a Clock in Its Walls because some of the scenes may do a number on them, especially if they have lost a parent.

To balance the scales at the cost of pacing, the narrative tries many attempts at humour but, unfortunately, fails here as well. I was at the cinema with plenty of kids in the audience and not many enjoyed the jokes, though they may have been reeling from the psychologically twisted scenes that left their parents scrambling. To make matters worse, the film loses substance as it progresses, with a story that isn’t compelling even when it ticks along quickly.

Yet, as I said, I enjoyed this odd film on some level. Although Eli Roth disappoints on many fronts, he certainly makes the atmosphere interestingly weird. What’s more, the performances are decent enough, and the set design is simply fantastic. Is this enough to earn The House with a Clock in Its Walls a chance at a sequel that is true to John Bellairs? Only time will tell. Tick tock.

PG for thematic elements including sorcery, action, scary images, rude humour and language

Published in Dawn, ICON, August 14th, 2018