‘The House with a Clock in Its Walls’ review — A bizarre and scary family movie

The House with a Clock in Its Walls is too deeply weird to not at least admire the effort.

Director Eli Roth is best known for his violent and gory action and horror movies like Cabin Fever, Death Wish, and the Hostel series. So it was surprising to see him tackle the a family-friendly PG movie based on the John Bellairs novel The House with a Clock in Its Walls. And his foray into this dark young adult fantasy is given some serious power with Cate Blanchett and Jack Black playing a witch and warlock trying to fight back an evil that has the potential to doom the world. However, the movie doesn’t match the amount of effort they are both—in particular, Blanchett—are putting in. 

That’s not for lack of trying. Roth makes interesting choices, especially for a supposedly family-friendly movie. Truly, The House with a Clock in Its Walls is too deeply weird to not at least admire the effort that went into making it. However, it feels like Roth is constantly fighting the urge to make the movie scarier and more intense than its PG rating allows. Still, though, the movie is told from the perspective of a wonderfully quirky kid, Lewis Barnavelt (Owen Vaccaro), a 10-year-old orphan who goes to live with his Uncle Johnathan (Black) in an old creepy house in the fictional town of New Zebedee, Michigan in 1955.

During his first few nights in the dark maze of a house, Lewis meets Florence Zimmerman (Blanchett), Jonathan’s purple-clad and fabulously dressed neighbor, and encounters some oddities while exploring—a stain glass window that changes, suit of armor that moves, a living chair that acts like a dog. However, the oddest thing about the house is that within the walls comes the foreboding ticking of a clock left by the previous tenant and Jonathan’s friend Isaac Izard (Kyle McLaughlin) and his wife Selena (Renee Elise Goldsberry). The purpose of the clock is a mystery until the true nature is uncovered and terrifying events unfold within the house. 

Blanchett, Black, and Vaccaro make an interesting trio to follow and root for. The actors do most of the heavy lifting where the movie falters, especially as it becomes more repetitive with whimsical magic as Lewis studies magic under his uncle and nightmarish imagery—at least for the young audience. The conception and design of the world are great. Particularly the costuming and production design. Though it’d be great to venture further than the house and Lewis’ school. Kids seeing the movie are sure to be entranced—and scared—by the imagery. However, there is less for the adults to latch on to.

The pacing becomes an issue during the middle portion, which feels like it drags. There is some reprieve, though, when the movie focuses more on the trio’s relationship as a family unit of “black swans” as Jonathan puts it at one point. Blanchett does a lot to elevate her character’s storyline with much-needed subtlety. However, those moments are fleeting and instead, we get progressively weirder and creepier scenes as the mysterious clock in the walls winds down. And when Roth lets loose and makes a dark fantasy rather than a kids movie, it works well. In one scene, Blanchett head-butts a demonic jack o’lantern that spews adhesive pumpkin guts. Yes, it’s as trippy as it sounds. 

It’s that pure unadulterated weirdness that makes The House with a Clock in Its Walls interesting to watch. Tonally, that’s what the movie needed to commit to. At one point, Florence even says about Lewis, “wow, he is weird.” And yes, Lewis is a properly weird goggles-wearing protagonist. That should have leaked more into the rest of the movie. And more demonic jack o’lanterns too.

The House with a Clock in its Walls is available to rent or buy on Amazon!