The House with a Clock in its Walls (2018)

dir. Eli Roth

John Bellairs’ 1973 mystery novel The House with a Clock in its Walls was lauded by critics and readers alike as a clever, compelling, creepy children’s mystery. Unfortunately this film adaptation does not manage to be clever or compelling, while its occasional creepy moments are so incongruous as to be more baffling than scary. The story follows 10-year-old orphaned Lewis as he moves in with his uncle Jonathan, who lives in a bizarre mansion full of clocks, sentient chairs and pianos, and other curious phenomena. The “enchantingly whimsy” atmosphere is frequently broken by unsettling imagery, like Jonathan smashing an axe into a wall à la The Shining, or an assortment of downright hideous dolls and puppets watching his every move. At moments like these, it fleetingly makes sense that horror veteran Eli Roth directed this – but then the movie returns to lukewarm elementary school hijinks, characters stumbling over their own quirky catchphrases, and a plot so bizarre and convoluted that even young children would question its sanity. It doesn’t help that Lewis himself is obnoxious, spitting out thesaurus synonyms in lieu of having a real personality, while some of the filming it’s so erratic it’s difficult to tell what’s even going on. The House with a Clock in its Walls can’t decide whether it wants to be enchanting or unnerving; by trying to balance both it simply winds up being underwhelming.