The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)

The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)

 6/10

Starring

Jack Black

Cate Blanchett

Owen Vaccaro

Directed by Eli Roth

The movie is based on the 1973 novel of the same name by John Bellairs. The book was the first of a series of twelve and I wonder if this movie had been more profitable maybe we would have seen a sequel. The movie is a dark fantasy with just enough comedy, but the gaps in between made way for boredom to set in as you watch. The movie does not strike me as something you must to see, but as one of those movies where the actors did their best, but the material was subpar.

Even the effects will come off as average, better than what you will see in B-movies, but not enough and for a dark fantasy movie. There seem to be less use of effects as I would have expected (except when magic was being done). The movie also had wasted casts which only served one purpose and that was that. Makes you wonder if the movie will not have gotten along fine if they were not there, example being the antagonist’s wife.

The plot is around the life of Lewis (Owen Vaccaro), a young boy who just lost his parents. All he had left of them was a Magic 8-ball they gave him and a picture. He was to now start living with his uncle Jonathan (Jack Black), who is as weird as they come. We also meet someone who seems to come in and out of the house when she wants, it is Jonathan’s neighbor and best friend Florence (Cate Blanchett).

After an odd night, the next night led Lewis to discover that there is something about Jonathan that he is not sharing. When he found Jonathan with an axe and having a go at a wall, his panic led Jonathan to open up to him a little.

We learn that Jonathan is a warlock and Florence too has magic. There is a clock in the house that they are trying to find. Lewis immediately wanted to learn magic and Jonathan started teaching him. There was, but one rule in the house Lewis was to stay away from a locked cabinet. It is not hard to guess that Lewis broke that rule and set all hell loose. We get to see Lewis as a child trying to impress other kids in school so they can hang with him. Then there is Jonathan who has never had any experience raising children, struggle to raise his sister’s.

Lewis’s blunder let loose a dangerous foe, which Jonathan feared will be bring the end of everything as we know it.

The House with a Clock in its walls is one of those forgettable movies that you will see and wonder some time after that happened in it.