"The House with a Clock in Its Walls" achieves an eerie look, but is fitfully dull in the first two acts. It picks up quite a bit of steam in the climax. The mystery takes shape in an interesting way, only to be squandered in a lackluster finale.
Eli Roth delivers on style, not nearly as much substance. "The House with a Clock in Its Walls" has the haunted house theme down pat. Everything about the setting is well conceived. The place is spooky as hell. If only the plot weren't so plodding. The film fails to captivate in the beginning. The characters, particularly Lewis, are just going through the motions. "The House with a Clock in Its Walls" doesn't grab you like a Harry Potter film. Roth needed to craft the opening scenes with more wonder. Part of being a great children's film director is the ability to stoke curiosity, establish a sense of innocence and adventure. Roth's approach is too adult here.
For all its spells and incantations, the witchcraft-themed fantasy "The House With a Clock in Its Walls" (Universal) lacks magic. Though some of the humor works, the film makes little impression and registers as only passable entertainment.
Too scary for tots, director Eli Roth's adaptation of the first in a series of books written by John Bellairs and illustrated by Edward Gorey is acceptable for most others. Parents, however, may not appreciate the quasi-profanities that occasionally and -- given the target audience -- needlessly crop up in Eric Kripke's screenplay.
Instead, for all the longstanding popularity of its source material -- which dates back to the 1970s -- the screen version feels routine. Its apprentice wizard, its gothic setting, its dustups between the characters will all likely strike viewers as derivative.
That may be unfair to Bellairs since his work long preceded the Harry Potter juggernaut, for instance. But, unlike their villain, the folks behind "The House with a Clock in Its Walls" can't reverse the onward march of chronology.
"The House With a Clock in Its Walls" ditches bloody body parts and violent showdowns for a spoopier form of suspense. We first see the movie’s creepy clockwork puppet creatures when young protagonist Lewis is convinced his Uncle Jonathan (Jack Black) is an axe-murder. While they’re just a disturbing piece of background imagery then, later on in the film they start whirring and coming to life.
The shadowed house with its infernal ticking, the moonlit scene where two young boys meet in the graveyard to summon a dead body, the black-and-white flickered flashbacks to the villain’s dark past — the elements are all tangibly scary and suspenseful, thought punctuated with kooky humor befitting of a family movie. At the heart of it all — at the heart of most spoopy movies — is the message that being unapologetically yourself, no matter how weird, no matter how bizarre, is important. Your real friends and family are the ones who’ll embrace that weird and see it as something special. After all, it just might save the day.
Eli Roth delivers on style, not nearly as much substance. "The House with a Clock in Its Walls" has the haunted house theme down pat. Everything about the setting is well conceived. The place is spooky as hell. If only the plot weren't so plodding. The film fails to captivate in the beginning. The characters, particularly Lewis, are just going through the motions. "The House with a Clock in Its Walls" doesn't grab you like a Harry Potter film. Roth needed to craft the opening scenes with more wonder. Part of being a great children's film director is the ability to stoke curiosity, establish a sense of innocence and adventure. Roth's approach is too adult here.
Julian Roman
MovieWeb
For all its spells and incantations, the witchcraft-themed fantasy "The House With a Clock in Its Walls" (Universal) lacks magic. Though some of the humor works, the film makes little impression and registers as only passable entertainment.
Too scary for tots, director Eli Roth's adaptation of the first in a series of books written by John Bellairs and illustrated by Edward Gorey is acceptable for most others. Parents, however, may not appreciate the quasi-profanities that occasionally and -- given the target audience -- needlessly crop up in Eric Kripke's screenplay.
Instead, for all the longstanding popularity of its source material -- which dates back to the 1970s -- the screen version feels routine. Its apprentice wizard, its gothic setting, its dustups between the characters will all likely strike viewers as derivative.
That may be unfair to Bellairs since his work long preceded the Harry Potter juggernaut, for instance. But, unlike their villain, the folks behind "The House with a Clock in Its Walls" can't reverse the onward march of chronology.
John Mulderig
Catholic News Service:
"The House With a Clock in Its Walls" ditches bloody body parts and violent showdowns for a spoopier form of suspense. We first see the movie’s creepy clockwork puppet creatures when young protagonist Lewis is convinced his Uncle Jonathan (Jack Black) is an axe-murder. While they’re just a disturbing piece of background imagery then, later on in the film they start whirring and coming to life.
The shadowed house with its infernal ticking, the moonlit scene where two young boys meet in the graveyard to summon a dead body, the black-and-white flickered flashbacks to the villain’s dark past — the elements are all tangibly scary and suspenseful, thought punctuated with kooky humor befitting of a family movie. At the heart of it all — at the heart of most spoopy movies — is the message that being unapologetically yourself, no matter how weird, no matter how bizarre, is important. Your real friends and family are the ones who’ll embrace that weird and see it as something special. After all, it just might save the day.
Petrana Radulovic
polygon.com
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