Fantasy-Horror Film 'The House With A Clock In Its Walls’ Releases First Trailer
The first trailer for the upcoming fantasy-horror movie The House with a Clock in Its Walls has just been dropped. It features Jack Black who is up against some serious beasts.
Secrets In Its Walls
The film is based on John Bellairs's children's classic of the same name. It also stars the legendary Cate Blanchett. Film director Eli Roth of Hostel fame is at the helm.
The story finds 10-year-old Lewis (Owen Vaccaro) sent off to live in his uncle's creepy and creaky old house. The new trailer offers glimpses of moving portraits, difficult dummies, and a magical umbrella wielded by Blanchett.
There are also witches and warlocks to contend with, once things kick off and Lewis wakes the dead, echoing The Addams Family's favorite parlor game.
Black, who previously fought off his own creations as R.L. Stine in Goosebumps, is tasked here with hurling fireballs at all manner of evil spirits.
Blanchett, who is fresh from playing the villainous Hela in Thor: Ragnarok, looks to have brought some of that same energy along in her performance in this movie as she tussles with her umbrella.
A Kids Horror Classic
The novel in which the film is based is the first installment of the 12-book series, which Brad Strickland continued writing when Bellairs passed away in 1993. It features wonderfully spooky artwork by Edward Gorey.
The book is also the inspiration for segments in the 1979 horror anthology series Once Upon A Midnight Scary hosted by horror icon Vincent Price.
Amblin Pictures, the company that Spielberg built, is releasing the horror flick through Universal Pictures. It promises that the scares won't be watered down for the kids. With Roth onboard, however, it hardly seems like something to worry about.
Added to the fear quotient is Twin Peaks legend, Kyle MacLachlan. The movie is also written by Supernatural series creator Eric Kripke, who gushed about his love of the series on Twitter.
"When I was 10, I fell in love with this book," Kripke tweeted on the trailer's release day. "The only fan letter I ever wrote was to its author. It's one of the main inspirations for [Supernatural]. Now we got to make it into a movie. Dreams do come true. If you like [Supernatural], see where it all began," he wrote.
The box-office success of the 2015 movie Goosebumps proved there is a real market for kids horror titles and The House with a Clock in Its Walls is surely looking to tap this niche.
The sequel Goosebumps: Slappy Halloween drops on Oct. 12, but Black's involvement remains unknown at the moment.
The House with a Clock in Its Walls hits theaters on Sept. 21.
