After turning stomachs with a series of gross-out horror flicks, Eli Roth has suddenly taken a turn towards the mainstream. So far not so good based on the reaction to his recent Death Wish remake, but there’s a better chance for success with The House with a Clock in its Walls, which has dropped a spooky new trailer.
Starring Cate Blanchett and Jack Black, who have been turning in a lot of fun performances lately, the film is based on the illustrated novel by John Bellairs and penned by Supernatural writer Eric Kripke. The story follows a young boy named Lewis who goes with his uncle to live in a magical house that contains a ticking heart which could lead to the world’s end.
This is the best trailer by far, and it’s full of the imaginative visuals we’ve never seen from Roth before. Sure, he came up with some imaginative ways to kill people in his earlier work, but this is him putting those horror skills to different use. And it looks like Blanchett and Black are having a ball. She plays the witch living next door while Black is Lewis’ uncle, a small-town warlock in his own right.
Here’s the synopsis: In the tradition of Amblin classics where fantastical events occur in the most unexpected places, Jack Black and two-time Academy Award® winner Cate Blanchett star in The House with a Clock in Its Walls, from Amblin Entertainment. The magical adventure tells the spine-tingling tale of 10-year-old Lewis (Owen Vaccaro) who goes to live with his uncle in a creaky old house with a mysterious tick-tocking heart. But his new town’s sleepy façade jolts to life with a secret world of warlocks and witches when Lewis accidentally awakens the dead.
Also starring Kyle MacLachlan, Owen Vaccaro, Colleen Camp, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Vanessa Anne Williams, and Sunny Suljic, The House with a Clock in its Walls opens September 21st.
