The House with a Clock in Its Walls tells the tale of 10-year-old Lewis Barnavelt (Owen Vacarro) who goes to live with his eccentric uncle in a creaky old house with a mysterious tick-tocking heart.  But his new town’s sleepy facade jolts to life with a secret world of warlocks and witches when Lewis accidentally awakens the dead.

Ten-year-old Lewis, recently orphaned and sent to stay with his Uncle Jonathan (Jack Black), has discovered a hidden world of magic, mystery and supernatural menace — and it’s all in his sleepy little town. He discovers that the curious mansion he now calls home is full of secrets — chief among them an incessant tick-tocking coming from somewhere in the house.

He’s not sure which is more astonishing: the wondrous, sprawling house, or his oddball Uncle Jonathan and Jonathan’s best friend, verbal sparring partner and neighbour Mrs Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett).

If adjusting to a new school and new friends weren’t enough to deal with in this unexpected suburban life, Lewis’ entire world turns upside down when he discovers Uncle Jonathan and Mrs Zimmerman are both powerful practitioners of the magic arts. 

Lewis is now caught up in something equally wild with a warlock and a witch — who are on a secret mission to discover the source and the meaning of a foreboding ticking doomsday clock… hidden away somewhere within the house’s walls.

All of this, plus deadly curses, attacking jack-o’-lanterns, endless hours of homework, and an evil wizard who has returned from the grave. Lewis’ new life is more than enough for any 10-year-old to juggle.

Based on the first volume in the beloved children’s series of books written by John Bellairs and illustrated by Edward Gorey, The House with a Clock in Its Walls is directed by master frightener Eli Roth and written by Eric Kripke. 

A FAN LETTER STARTS IT ALL

For some time, producers Bradley J. Fischer and James Vanderbilt of Mythology Entertainment had wanted to work with screenwriter and producer Eric Kripke.  The filmmaker had created the long-running fan favourite TV series Supernatural, a tale of two brothers who grapple with unexpected superpowers, and the gifts and curses that accompany them.  The Mythology producers were eager to partner with the writer on one of the projects about which he was most passionate.  To do so, they’d head to the source material that inspired a young Kripke as a boy — the inaugural book from John Bellairs’ timeless 12-book series: The House with a Clock in Its Walls. 

Like many children of the ’70s — and those who continue to devour Bellairs’ books today — Kripke was fascinated by the manner in which the author spoke to kids, as well as the page-turning, Gothic drawings of Edward Gorey — equal parts droll and spooky. “Brad and Jamie asked: if I could make any movie I wanted, what would I pick? For me, it was no question… this book. It’s been my lifelong obsession to bring this book to the screen. I devoured everything John Bellairs wrote; he inspired my career in a large part. I wrote a letter to him, the only fan letter I ever wrote.  He wrote me back, and to this day, I keep that letter in my desk,” says Kripke.

Roth, who has built a career based on much darker scares, was drawn to this PG story for myriad reasons. It wasn’t just a chance to make the type of movie he had always dreamed of making, it was the shot to partner with Amblin, whose films had arguably some of the biggest influence on him as a child and burgeoning filmmaker.  

The director walks us through an introduction to this world: “There are certain things that give this story an Amblin feel, and I wanted to come out and make the next great Amblin movie. I want The House with a Clock in Its Walls to be side by side with Gremlins and Back to the Future.” He’s not worried about making younger audiences nervous about the things that go bump in the night.  “I wanted this movie to be very scary, and I think that you can have funny and scary at the same time.  Gremlins showed that, and E.T. did as well.”

KIDS LOVE TO BE SCARED

Roth shares that perhaps some of the best direction he’s ever received was from the head of Amblin himself, a man who knows a thing or two about genre blending. “I told (Steven) Spielberg what a seminal experience Poltergeist was for me as a kid, and I wanted to give a new generation of kids those same thrills. “He gave me amazing advice. He said: ‘Don’t design it so much that people can’t get into the story. And most important, make it scary. Kids love to be scared.’”

CASTING IT RIGHT

For the role of Jonathan Barnavelt, it was important to Roth and his producers to find someone who would serve as the initially frightening relative to live with… then the really fun uncle to join you on an adventure.  “Jack just encapsulates all of it,” says Roth. “It’s hard for me to think of anyone else in the role other than him.  You think of Jack, and you just laugh; he has so much personality, so much charm, and he’s so funny.  But he also has such heart. It’s a dream come true to watch him create this role.”

Black has long thought of himself as a kid at heart, and like his collaborators, he appreciated the fact that Kripke’s script brought the spirit of Bellairs. Despite its dark themes of loss and tragedy, the story offers lessons, excitement and pure joy. “This is a movie that kids of all ages can enjoy,” reflects Black, “but we want to give them a thrill.  Sometimes you have to go dark to give them that.”

Casting two-time Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett in the role of Florence Zimmerman, one of the most powerful witches on Earth, was a major coup for the filmmakers.  Known for a body of dramatic work, Blanchett has also stunned audiences with her darkly comedic chops in films such as Thor: Ragnarok. Shares Roth: “When you ask, ‘Who’s the greatest actress in the world? People say, ‘Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Judi Dench.’ That’s it.  I’m so excited because I haven’t seen Cate do a role like this. I feel like she’s had fun in classic roles like the wicked stepmother in Cinderella. She’s so thoughtful, careful and meticulous, and she was excited to create this incredible role.” 

Blanchett offers that the director was one of the primary reasons she decided to join the production.  “What I love about Eli is that he didn’t just come at the story from one perspective. He has incredibly electric tastes, and I felt like he didn’t shy away from the danger and excitement. But he was also able to bring such heart to the film.”

The chemistry between Black and Blanchett is unexpectedly whimsical, and Blanchett and Black had a ball delivering Kripke’s zingers at one another. The director reflects that watching them reminded him of scenes from his favourite classic comedies: “When I saw them, I thought, ‘This is Tracy and Hepburn.  It’s like we’re making a Howard Hawks-screwball comedy. This is his Girl Friday.’ There are moments where Jack and Cate are sniping at each other where I thought, ‘We are making a Preston Sturges/Howard Hawks film.’”

To play the irrepressible Lewis Barnavelt, the production would search high and low for a boy capable of mixing humour and pathos. “We wanted to find someone who had the sensitivity, who was vulnerable, fun, and an outcast you could root for and love,” says Roth. They discovered that in young actor Owen Vaccaro, who had made a name for himself in both Daddy’s Home and Mother’s Day. “Owen walked in the room, and he was the kid. He is Lewis, and his performance is so strong dramatically. He is so funny, and he has such great natural timing.” 

The centrepiece of The House with a Clock in Its Walls is a mansion with a deep, dark, world-stopping secret. But the 1950s town of New Zebedee itself had to be created in Newnan, Georgia. From the sweet shop to Mrs Zimmerman’s purple house, the filmmakers were delighted to find the look they sought in this small southern town.

THE HOUSE IS THE CHARACTER

Roth’s inspiration for creating this universe alongside production designer Jon Hutman is an interesting one: a Quentin Tarantino film in which he acted.  The director explains: “Acting in Inglorious Basterds was one of the most fun experiences in my life.  I got to live in the world of the 1940s and be in Europe.” 

Also, as a massive fan of Amblin’s Back to the Future movies and of the ’50s in general, Roth was particularly keen to dig into the design of New Zebedee. “I loved that town square from the films; I loved Save the Clock Tower.’ When we got to Newnan, we all thought, “Oh my god, this is like the town square in Back to the Future.” 

Of course, a film titled The House with a Clock in Its Walls had to have a star, well, house. “We wanted it to look lush and beautiful, but the house is the character,” sums the director. “At the same time, we have to open up to the whole world in the town of New Zebedee.” Filmed in downtown Newnan, about 30 minutes outside of Atlanta, the small town had the look designer Hutman was seeking, including turn-of-the-century homes similar to those found in Michigan.

Blanchett discusses the house that was created on set, offering that it definitely brought out the kid inside her: “It was this terrifying, wonderful, but also very human house that needed a lot of help. The wallpaper, the staircase, the stained glass window that moved. Every single weird and kooky clock and all of the taxidermy animals. You were able to play with everything, and the set decoration was creepy but super magical.” Her favourite element?  “The pooping griffin! Every time we stepped onto a new part of the set, I was like a child in Disneyland.”