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The House with a Clock in Its Walls Movie Review

The House with a Clock in Its Walls is a 2018 family fantasy film directed by Eli Roth and starring Jack Black and Cate Blanchett. It’s an uninspired, but overall pretty solid flick.

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“I can give you the right books,

teach you the right spells,

but that last 1%, that’s up to you“

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It follows a young boy who is sent to live with his uncle in a creaky old house. He soon learns it was previously inhabited by a nefarious entity. Needless to say, I found this movie way too similar to Harry Potter and I know that this book came out first, but the movie felt too similar to the first couple of Harry Potter stories and those were of course much superior. This is still a solid story, just not as fun or as sophisticated as the HP ones.

Being directed by Eli Roth, this film is very odd in its tonal approach. Sometimes the horror elements are borderline scary for younger children which are the intended audience, but they aren’t scary enough for adults so the mix did not really work for me. I still found the scenes intriguing, but just not all that necessary.

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Otherwise, the movie is your typical family flick about magic for better and for worse. I like magic so obviously I found it very endearing and fun, but there was nothing new to it so that also bothered me. Also, the childish tone was too prevalent at times, especially in its dialogue. But its heart and message are in the right place and I also really liked the overall mystery and atmosphere to it. I just wish the first act wasn’t as abrupt. The other two are much better.

Owen Vaccaro is okay as Lewis, but I unfortunately found the character way too annoying. To me personally, he was not a nerd you could easily love, but the other way around. His forced “weirdness” and goofiness did not lead to a strong or likable character at all. But Jack Black and Cate Blanchett are thankfully much better.

He suits this movie and was so well cast, although too similar to ‘Goosebumps’. But he did give out a fun, charming performance in a very likable role. Cate herself overacted for sure, but that fits the role too and her arc was very well done and quite interesting. The interactions between the two are immensely charming. And the less said about the cartoony, one-note villains and their goal, the better. They were competent, but immensely cliched.

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The House with a Clock in Its Walls features an absolutely terrific production design with some stunning looking sets which really helped the story a lot and the atmosphere. I also found the cinematography quite good and Nathan Barr actually managed to channel John Williams’ score from the first couple of Harry Potter movies tremendously well. So the movie looks and sounds good with such good, fun special effects and color palette. I just wished for more originality and momentum in its storytelling. Its toiler humor is terrible tough.

The House with a Clock in Its Walls is much inferior to the first couple of Harry Potter stories which it obviously tried to channel. The protagonist is also quite annoying. But the film is still a lot of old-fashioned family fantasy fun with a problematic tone to it owing to Eli Roth’s troublesome direction, but two very charming performances from Jack Black and Cate Blanchett as well as a terrific production design, good special effects and a beautiful score.