Rent The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)
3.0 of 5 from 541 ratings
1h 40min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- This magical adventure tells the story of 10-year-old Lewis (Owen Vaccaro), who goes to live with his uncle in a creepy old house. When Lewis discovers that the house has a mysterious tick-tocking sound coming from its walls, the local town's sleepy facade jolts to life. Determined to find the ticking, Lewis uncovers a secret world of warlocks and witches and accidentally awakens the dead - forcing Lewis, his Uncle Jonathan (Jack Black) and their neighbour, Mrs Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett) into a race against time to save the world.
- Actors:
- Jack Black, Cate Blanchett, Owen Vaccaro, Kyle MacLachlan, Renee Goldsberry, Colleen Camp, Sunny Suljic, Lorenza Izzo, Braxton Bjerken, Vanessa Anne Williams, Ricky Muse, Charles Green, De'Jon Watts, Aaron Beelner, Joshua Phillips, Christian Calloway, Caleb Lawrence, Dylan Gage, Jalyn Hall, Jackson T. Giles IV
- Directors:
- Eli Roth
- Producers:
- Bradley J. Fischer, Eric Kripke, James Vanderbilt
- Writers:
- Eric Kripke, John Bellairs
- Studio:
- EntertainmentOne
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Children & Family, Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
- Collections:
- 2019, CinemaParadiso.co.uk Through Time, Top 13 Halloween Films For Kids
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 28/01/2019
- Run Time:
- 104 minutes
- Languages:
- English Audio Description, English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 2.39:1
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Feature Commentary with Director Eli Roth and Actor Jack Black
- Deleted Scenes
- Gag Reel
- Warlocks and Witches
- Movie Magic
- Tick Tock: Bringing the Book to Life
- Eli Roth: Director's Journals
- Owen Goes Behind the Scenes
- Do You Know Jack Black?
- Jack Black's Greatest Fear
- The Mighty Wurlitzer
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 28/01/2019
- Run Time:
- 104 minutes
- Languages:
- English Audio Description, English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1
- Subtitles:
- Dutch Hard of Hearing, English Hard of Hearing
- DVD Regions:
- Region 0 (All)
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 2.39:1
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- (0) All
- Bonus:
- Feature Commentary with Director Eli Roth and Actor Jack Black
- Deleted Scenes
- Gag Reel
- Warlocks and Witches
- Movie Magic
- Tick Tock: Bringing the Book to Life
- Eli Roth: Director's Journals
- Owen Goes Behind the Scenes
- Do You Know Jack Black?
- Jack Black's Greatest Fear
- The Mighty Wurlitzer
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Reviews (10) of The House with a Clock in Its Walls
Extremely disappointing and boring to watch! - The House with a Clock in Its Walls review by CS
I was very disappointed by this film and found it a real bore to watch! There is nothing new, original or special about it at all. It reminded me of so many other films of this type, like 'Harry Potter', 'Hugo', 'Goosebumps', 'Percy Jackson', 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' and so on. It seems to me that the author has simply lifted their ideas from other children stories and massed them all together into one very badly created mashup. The acting is dull, the script unimaginative, the special effects were not so special and the direction was all over the place. I found it very hard to concentrate and just found the whole affair very disappointing!
3 out of 3 members found this review helpful.
Kids may like. Possibly - The House with a Clock in Its Walls review by NC
Bit of an effort to watch. Never lover of weirdo Jack to be fair, but whole thing is a bit boring with nothing novel anywhere. Kids will doubtless watch and enjoy, but prob not the adults as is not really clever.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
Good fun but may be scary for really young - The House with a Clock in Its Walls review by PC
Although not highly original, it is quite nice to get a family film with real scares and creepy moments, although this may be a bit scary for the younger viewers. It moves along at a good pace and has good use of old fashioned effects rather than constant CGI. Jack Black plays Jack Black but Cate Blanchett is great fun as his neighbour and sparring partner.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
Critic review
The House with a Clock in Its Walls review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso
In the same year that horror-loving director Eli Roth directed a film where Bruce Willis spilled blood and bullets on the streets of Chicago, he has additionally created a PG horror film for kids with The House With A Clock In Its Walls. It sounds odd that a director could go from exploding brains to exploding pumpkins, but Roth found a way to keep himself boiled down to the level of family entertainment. Too far down, as it turns out, as though he only read half the book on Robert Rodriguez’s guide to making genre pictures for kids.
Made under the Amblin banner of movies for children, it's a fantasy fit for the kids. Set in the 1950s, Lewis (Owen Vaccaro) is a newly orphaned genius boy that has come to stay with his Uncle Jonathan (Jack Black) in his spooky house of secrets. For any other kid, Jonathan’s home would be a paradise for featuring no rules, no bedtimes, and freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies for every meal. But Lewis knows there is something more going on in the house. He suspects as much when the glass painting on the wall mutates overnight, the chairs start moving on their own, and his dreams feature the ghost of his dead parents giving him very specific advice.
Lewis is astounded to discover that the root of the weirdness is magic itself. And he wants to learn all, to become just as impressive a warlock as Jonathan, or possibly better given Jonathan’s rusty fingers with conjuring spells. Maybe as powerful as their neighbor Florence (Cate Blanchett), a well-dressed witch with an accessory of an umbrella that doubles as a wand, and possibly a shotgun depending on how she wields her magic. With his newfound abilities, Lewis sets about becoming the less meek kid in school, impressing bullies and girls. But that’s not all. There’s also a mysterious clock hidden inside Jonathan’s walls that keeps ticking, driving him mad. And there’s Jonathan’s old nemesis of his ex-magic partner played by Kyle MacLachlan that has a doomsday plot up his undead sleeve.
The movie has all the elements of pleasing spooky film, but ultimately never comes fully together, existing as a series of amusing scenes that don’t have much of a flow. The best scenes are without question the back and forth between Black and Blanchett, firing snarky comments with witty delivery at a zippy pace. I wish the rest of the film could have had this intelligence and timing. The closest it comes is with the many scary setpieces of mechanical puppets come to life and evil pumpkins that barf orange innards. But there are so many little flaws holding the film back from gaining any momentum. The biggest direction being the acting, where Black with temporarily gain and lose an accent, and Owen Vaccaro has a serious issue with his wailing being far too over the top to buy the somberness. And why did they have to give Kyle MacLachlan a tinny demonic voice alteration when it clearly doesn’t work?
These are all nitpicks that took me out of the picture, but I can’t deny that there’s just enough here that kids will dig it far more than the adults, per the Amblin formula. There’s a handful of magical scenes, a moral core about being different, and an abundance of low-brow jokes that are just vulgar enough to have the kids laughing as much as they’ll be spooked. They’ll be entranced enough that they won’t notice how there are too many plots spinning that either go too slow or peter out of the picture. And for that I can’t help but admire the film like Halloween night, an event that only kids will have the most fun experiencing.