The House With A Clock In Its Walls Review: 5 Ups & 3 Downs

1. It Knows It's Bonkers (And The Final Act Proves It)

You can forgive a lot of a film if it makes it very clear that it knows what it is, and after a slight identity crisis early on (more of which soon), The House With A Clock In Its Walls nails its message to the mast, high and clear.

It's not just a celebration of weird characters, it's a story defined by that same weirdness, which self-consciously weaves through ridiculous revelation after ridiculous revelation. There's bits of Goosebumps in there, bits of The Cryptkeeper an lots of Eli Roth's madcap imagination, but there's something very knowing behind the escalation towards the end of the movie that makes how ridiculous it all is utterly charming.

And what an escalation it is: with about half an hour left, the film just loses its mind completely, with the kind of silliness you'll wish it was bolder with from the outset and some moments (one of which will haunt your dreams if you like Jack Black) that younger audience members will be talking about for years.

And now to the negatives...