| Credit: Pixabay.com |
Before director Eli Roth adapted it to Film, the closest that John Bellair’s YA novel, The House With a Clock In Its Walls, came to a movie was as a short film featured in a made-for-TV Halloween special. That was back in the ‘70s, not too long after the Book had released.Entitled Once Upon a Midnight Scary, it was an hour-long anthology featuring three short films, the last being “The House With a Clock In Its Walls”, narrated by Vincent Price who encouraged young viewers to read the books these films were based on. That encouragement definitely worked with me. I saw it when I was around 9 and read House With a Clock whenI was about 25. Okay, so that encouragement didn’t work the first time but did work the second time, when I saw the Vincent Price special on VHS.I’ve read the book at least twice and loved it.So when September’s release of the big screen adaptation was announced back in the summer I was like “Yeah! Finally!” Well, I saw The House With a Clock In Its Walls a couple of weeks ago. I wasn’t disappointed. However, viewers, such as myself, who have read the novel may not be as impressed with the terror the film offers as those who haven’t read it. Even so, it still offers plenty of suspense and awe.
House With a Clock released on good timing. It premiered in theatres at the end of September, just in time for the Halloween season and is very Halloween-ish like the book while it doesn’t limit itself to the theme and so is perfect viewing and reading for anytime of the year. As far as story goes, the movie, overall, stays faithful to the book. Lewis moves in with his Uncle Johnathan after his parents have passed away and soon discovers a deadly secret in his uncle’s creepy but fascinating mansion. The secret is connected with a strange, loud ticking of a clock that is hidden somewhere in the house and that his uncle and their neighbour and friend Mrs. Zimmerman are desperately trying to uncover. However, after Lewis gets a hold of a necromancy book he accidently raises from the dead the evil husband and wife magicians, Isaac and Selena(“Serenna” in the novel) Izard, who had hidden the clock and now try to drive Johnathan and Lewis out of the house. But Johnathan, Lewis and Mrs. Zimmerman won’t give up without a fight, literally.
Jack Black plays his role as Johnathan Barnavelt really good and comes across as the eccentric that the character does in the book. Owen Vacarro who plays Lewis isn’t bad but the development of the character in the movie could have been made with a better emotional connection to the audience like it is in the novel. Cate Blanchett plays good the part of Mrs. Zimmerman especially in relation to Johnathan with the light-hearted humour of condescending remarks the two characters toss back and forth to each other which is also shown in the book.
Unlike in the novel, Isaac Izard plays a larger and more present role in the film than his wife, Selena, does. In the book, the emphasis was the other way around between these two characters. Even though he is out-right menacing in his haggard features, in this film Selena isn’t that menacing in her appearance like she is in the book. She is much younger than he (or at least appears to be, witches can disguise themselves, right?) and made up to meet society’s standards of beauty but, still, she is just as evil in her actions and demeanor as she is in the novel. (Think Wilhelmina in ABC’s Ugly Betty, if you ever watched that sitcom, only more occultic.)
An addition to the movie is that Lewis is trained as a wizard by his uncle much more than he is in the book. Maybe this was added to compete with the Harry Potter films and their more recent brainchild, Fantastic Beasts. Even so, this addition to Lewis’s character works.
As I said, people who have read the novel won’t be as struck by the frightful scenes as much as those who haven’t read it. Still, the movie as a whole mesmerises. Both the surrealism of Johnathan’s house and the magic that it holds, such as changing images in stained glass windows and a living chair, will amuse audiences. Also the black magic of the Izards will do the same and hold viewers in suspense. The Izards even take their magic further than they do in the book when they launch a horde of monsters against the good magicians.
A few elements in the movie may make it questionable whether it’s suitable for family viewing. Some of the crude humour is a little overdone although it doesn’t ruin the rest of the film like with too many movies made for younger audiences. However, as in the book, the occult is referenced a lot which may make this film not suitable for children under the age of 8. It’s hard to say because only parents know their own kids best. Or they should.
I have to admit, not even the movie adaptation of The House With a Clock In Its Walls with it’s awe-inspiring special effects and fantastical, gothic settings can do justice to the book. The book had more going on in it and looks further into the characters’ lives and psychs than the movie. In fact, compared to the book, the events of the movie are kind of rushed. But, overall, the big screen adaptation interprets the novel well and still amuses and offers plenty of suspense. I hope to see a sequel since the book had two of them. But I also hope this movie will encourage kids and even adults who have not read the novel to read it.
Until next time . . .
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