An Endearing and Well-Crafted Children’s Fantasy Horror About Embracing Your “Nuts” and Overcoming Fears.
The film is based on John Bellairs’ 1973 novel, “The House with a Clock in Its Walls.” Young Lewis, after the death of his parents, moves in with his eccentric Uncle Jonathan. The new house seems very strange to him, and it’s no wonder, because it’s enchanted, and Jonathan and his neighbor, Mrs. Zimmerman, are real magicians. For a long time, they have been trying to solve a puzzle inherited from the previous owner of the house, the evil wizard Isaac Izard. Somewhere in the walls, he hid a clock that counts down to a terrible event. To find out what conspiracy is hidden in this clock, Lewis, Jonathan, and Mrs. Zimmerman need to join forces, eat cookies, and overcome evil.
Eli Roth has excelled in the horror genre and has taken many scalps during his career. “Hostel,” “The Green Inferno,” “Knock Knock” – all these are bloodthirsty films, savoring every drop of spilled blood. Therefore, it was very strange to see Roth switch to the conditional fantasy genre and decide to make a film for children with a PG 13 (12+) rating. But not so fast. The cunning director simply decided to change the audience and scare those whom the age rating previously did not allow him to touch. Think back to the films that left emotional scars on you after watching them at a tender age. Something between “Tales from the Crypt” and “The Shining.” Maybe Pennywise from “It” caused prolonged nightmares? In general, mix it all up and multiply it by two, that’s roughly how Eli Roth plans to haunt modern children.
Whether this is good or bad is up to the parents who will take their offspring to the cinema. In general, children’s horror films have their own special charm. Remember at least the original fairy tales before their “Disneyfication”: Cinderella’s sisters cut off their limbs, in “Sleeping Beauty” they wanted to make pies out of children, the sorceress ate Snow White’s heart. There is no such dismemberment in “The House with a Clock,” but there are sinister dolls, a truly scary evil wizard, the resurrection of the dead, and good old pumpkin ultra-violence. Strange as it may sound, all these risks benefited the film. The director sometimes turns on the “Georges Méliès” mode, then bows low to the teenage horror films of the 90s, does not forget to joke sometimes and interrupt sugary tearful moments with pooping bushes (this is not even a joke). In general, it entertains children and does not forget about adults.
Stellar Cast
One of the film’s trump cards is a win-win cast. The wonderful Cate Blanchett continues to amaze the public with her strange and charismatic transformations. It seems that all the compliments in her direction have already been said and it remains only to repeat them in the second round – a great woman. Rock and roll man Jack Black is also having a blast, joking, clowning around, everything as usual, but that’s why we love him. If you didn’t know, Kyle MacLachlan is also in the film! He doesn’t often get the role of antagonists, but they suit him, as it turned out.
Embracing Your “Nuts”
The fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it, Eli Roth put his little manifesto about oddities in this film. Mrs. Zimmerman’s famous cookies become special thanks to the raisins, and so does a person become special with their “nuts.” In the original, it sounds like It’s the nuts in my cookies that makes them special. The film encourages you not to be afraid of your oddities and turn them into features, not to try to adapt to society and be yourself. Therefore, despite all the horrors, it is very harmless and even touching. Such a colorful hybrid of the series “Are You Afraid of the Dark” and “Harry Potter”, which will either strengthen the nervous system of a young viewer, or become one of those very emotional scars.