The House With a Clock in its Walls's reviews
Media reviews
The Wrap
"It?s a spooky and amusing piece of family-friendly Halloween cinema, sharply produced and mostly effective, told with skill and panache"
The Hollywood Reporter
"The movie is a throwback to studio fare like Hocus Pocus or Casper ? it's anybody?s guess if Universal can entice parents to theaters when it opens Friday. But as a family film in that vein it largely succeeds, buoyed by Black?s typical exuberance, Blanchett?s typical slyness and a richly evocative rendering of a Rockwellian suburb sprinkled with goofer dust"
Rolling Stone
"Recalling Gremlins, The Goonies and every other fantasy that Steven Spielberg dreamed up in the 1980s, this bustling magic show promises a thrill ride of scares and giggles"
Indiewire
Universal?s soulless 2018 film adaptation of the same name, on the other hand, is directed by ?Hostel? auteur Eli Roth, whose cartoonish approach makes this bittersweet saga of witchcraft and wizardry feel like nothing more than a well-furnished theme park attraction
Screen Crush
"The House With a Clock In Its Walls is a derivative, if harmless, family-friendly horror movie. At the very least, young audiences may find it entertaining and respond to the whiff of a message about embracing your inner weirdo. But don?t kids deserve more than a hodgepodge of recycled ideas? Since seeing it, I can?t help but wonder what a version directed by Guillermo del Toro would look like, an expert horror filmmaker who can also uniquely relate to kids of traumatized childhoods"