The House With a Clock In Its Walls seems to assume that this lends the jokes some novelty – isn’t it hilarious when a garden sculpture poops? how about when a baby with an adult head pees? what if magic pumpkins were to vomit? – but these gags seems a little too self-indulgent. There are far too many “poop, vomit, and urine” jokes that are played out with a slightly magical twist. The primary antagonist is introduced as a concept half-an-hour before he finally appears to menace the characters.īeyond these plotting and pacing issues, The House With a Clock In Its Walls also leans a little too heavily into bodily function humour. This is about twenty to thirty minutes too many for an adventure film like this. Notably, The House With a Clock In Its Walls runs almost entirely on atmosphere for at least its first hour. However, these repeated interruptions slow down the forward momentum of the narrative. That said, the actors providing the exposition are charming, and the black and white footage has a delightful rustic pulpy old-school vibe to it that evokes stylised silent horror films. These sequences are overlaid with black and white footage, but the approach works better in prose than they do on screen. Over the course of the film, there are several extended sequences of characters narrating past events in order to bring other characters (and the audience) up to speed. These seem to be largely down to adaptational issues with exposition adapted from John Bellairs and Edward Gorey’s original classic children’s novel. More seriously, The House With a Clock In Its Walls does suffer from some pacing issues. Then again, there’s no indication that Roth wants that of this film. It isn’t as smart or insightful as audiences expect the best of contemporary children’s entertainment to be, with relatively few big ideas for families to chew over in the car on the way home. It is unlikely to become a generational classic in the style of the films that it is emulating, unlikely to achieve that lofty status as a children’s film passed down with love and excitement from one generation to the next. To be clear, there are a number of issues with The House With a Clock In Its Walls. Indeed, that nostalgia seems perfectly suited to The House With a Clock In Its Walls, which is just a shade darker and weirder than a lot of modern children’s films, but in keeping with the tone of the film’s of Roth’s childhood.

There is a clear sense of nostalgia and yearning in Roth’s work, even beyond straight-up remakes like The Green Inferno. At its best, and perhaps given the most charitable reading, Roth’s filmography suggests the demented glee of a teenager bringing his feverish imaginings to life. More than that, there’s perhaps a logic at play in these sorts of transitions. Older film fans will recognise George Miller for his work on the Mad Max franchise, while younger audience members will forever associate him with Happy Feet. Robert Rodriguez is perhaps best known for his work on Desperado or From Dusk ‘Til Dawn, but he is also responsible for the Spy Kids franchise. Then again, there is a long history of niche and exploitation filmmakers serving as unlikely storytellers of child-friendly narratives.

The house with a clock in its walls