Review of The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018) by Matt G — 27 Sep 2018

"The House with a Clock in Its Walls" is wonderfully unique in modern cinema; a live-action family film based on a largely-unknown horror-comedy tale. However, in the history of movies, it's really not that groundbreaking.

Released by Amblin Entertainment, Spielberg's iconic production company that gave so many of us the movies we grew up loving ("Goonies," "Gremlins," "E.T."), bleeds that familiar essence from every scene. Is it as great as those influences? Not at all. Still, for a movie largely dependent on its charm and nostalgic creativity, it's not bad.

We follow Lewis, who moves into his strange and estranged warlock uncle's home after his parents' death - a home that reveals itself to be a living, breathing organism. As a story dependent on magic, convenient coincidences and dei ex machina are expected, but this one really leans into those cheap screenwriting tools, along with an abundance of childishly unnecessary bathroom jokes. Nonetheless, the universe created is a fun one. Lewis is an engaging protagonist, with a solid character quirk of loving dictionaries and words. Best of all, Jack Black and Cate Blanchett prove to be a great pair, and are clearly having a good time here, especially in their loving jabs at each other.

One thing that is fairly indisputable is that this is Eli Roth's greatest directorial effort to date. For a man who loves to work in extreme-gore horror, he restrains himself well here. Like Tim Burton before he became a self-parody, his kid-friendly horror imagery is solid, and his noble support of all things odd is welcome. These positives point to some strong potential for any future franchise entries we may get, even if this film is only just "OK.".