The House with a Clock in Its Walls is a 2018 American fantasy comedy film directed by Eli Roth, based on the initial 1973 eponymous entry of the Lewis Barnavelt novel series by John Bellairs.

The movie stars Jack Black, Cate Blanchett, Owen Vaccaro, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Sunny Suljic, and Kyle MacLachlan.

It was a box office success, grossing over $131 million worldwide and received mostly positive reviews from critics who largely praised the cast, but said the film did not fully live up to its potential.

[3][4][5] In 1955, after his parents are killed in a car crash, ten-year-old Lewis Barnavelt moves to live with his Uncle Jonathan in New Zebedee, Michigan.

The house's previous owners were a sinister warlock named Isaac Izard, (an orphaned former friend of Jonathan's who was traumatized while fighting in WWII), and his equally wicked wife Selena.

On Halloween night, Lewis performs a necromancy spell with Tarby in a cemetery, accidentally summoning the corpse of Isaac from his grave.

Isaac explains that his hidden clock's blueprints came from the demon Azazel, who had given them to him as he sought relief from the visions of horror he had witnessed during the war.

Lewis returns to school with more confidence and gets back at Tarby and his friends by magically bouncing a basketball off their faces and into the basket, impressing his other classmates.

[2] In the United States and Canada, The House with a Clock in its Walls was released alongside Assassination Nation, Life Itself and Fahrenheit 11/9, and was projected to gross $15–20 million from 3,592 theaters in its opening weekend.

[13] Michael Jackson's short film Thriller was remastered in IMAX 3D for a limited engagement, preceding screenings of The House with a Clock in Its Walls in North America for its first week.

The website's critical consensus reads: "An entertaining PG detour for gore maestro Eli Roth, The House with a Clock in Its Walls is a family-friendly blend of humor and horror with an infectious sense of fun".