Before there was J. K. Rowling and Harry Potter, there was John Bellairs.  The comparison is probably unfair to Bellairs.  He never reached the same commercial success as Rowling.  Further, whereas she focused on one set of characters, there were a few through which he cycled.  Where they meet, on a personal level, is in the fact that I have read all their books.  More in the realm of literature, they each penned stories that featured magic.  Automatically, this might turn off some Christian readers, and this is understandable.  What should be remembered is this is all fantasy, imaginary tales that are as made up as any other work of fiction.  There is a danger posed to impressionable young people, but with the right guidance, these potential pitfalls can be overcome.  I would also add that among Bellairs’ characters was a Catholic priest, Father Thomas Higgins, who uses Church rituals to battle the forces of evil.  Unfortunately, he is not in the one work of his to be made into a film, The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018), but I enjoyed it all the same.  Keep this introduction in mind as we proceed.

The only place young Lewis Barnavelt (Owen Vaccaro) is proceeding to at the beginning of The House with a Clock in Its Walls is the home of his uncle, Jonathan Barnavelt (Jack Black).  Lewis’ parents have died in a car accident, so the boy is being sent to live with his sister’s brother.  Jonathan is there to greet his nephew on the bus upon its arrival in small town Michigan.  It is a strange setting for Lewis, though he has quirks of his own, such as his insistence on wearing the goggles of his favorite television serial hero.  Things get stranger once they enter the house.  Though Jonathan tries to keep things a secret, the building is enchanted.  From the numerous clocks lining the walls and sitting on other pieces of furniture, to items moving out of the corner of his eye that should not be doing so of their own accord, something is off.  The extraordinary occurrences keep happening as they sit down with Jonathan’s friend, Florence Zimmerman (Cate Banchett), for cards and cookies.  To punctuate how different life will be, as Lewis is going to bed that night, Jonathan reminds the kid that there are no rules in the house.  As he is trying to sleep, he is visited by his deceased mother (Lorenza Izzo), who tells him to locate a book and a key.  She also suggests that his uncle is hiding something.  The next day at school, Lewis’ treatment there matches his outsider status, being last picked for a basketball game in gym class, even having the classmate with leg braces chosen over him.  The one who takes pity on Lewis is Tarby Corrigan (Sunny Suljic), who is running for class president.  Tarby would typically not give someone like Lewis any attention, but the former currently has a broken bone in his arm and is unable to participate in the sports of his fellows.  When Lewis tells Tarby about his new settings, the latter adds that someone had died in that house, speculating that it might have been Jonathan who had done the murdering with an axe.  With this in mind, Lewis goes with his uncle after school with some trepidation.  While trying to go to bed later, the incessant sounds of ticking changes to a deeper boom of a larger device.  Getting up to investigate, he finds Jonathan chopping at a wall in a room fool of frightening dolls and other creepy wonderments.  Lewis is about to run away, with further craziness breaking out, including an animated armchair, when he is blocked by Jonathan.  It is at this point that the owner of the house admits that he is a warlock.  Lewis is fascinated, immediately wanting to learn how to wield magic.  Though Jonathan initially hesitates, Lewis’ persistence prevails and the boy takes his first steps into wizardry.  At the start, however, Jonathan gives one rule, his only one, and that it that Lewis stay out of the locked cabinet in the study.  While Lewis takes this guideline seriously, Florence accuses Jonathan of holding back, particularly with the persistent secret of the ticking.  All the same, Lewis settles into the life of an aspiring warlock.  What changes is Tarby.  Once his arm is healed, he begins to treat Lewis like everyone else.  Sensing the loss of a companion, Lewis tries to entice Tarby’s friendship with promises of magic.  While searching through the library to find an enchantment for a better curveball, Tarby notices the locked cabinet.  Against Lewis’ wishes, Tarby unlocks it.  Inside, they find a book with spells linked to necromancy, or raising the dead.  Lewis is horrified, but Tarby leaves in disgust.  Still wanting to prove himself, Lewis says he will use the book at the cemetery when it gets dark.  In following the tomes prompts, they are taken to the grave of Isaac Izard (Kyle MacLachlan).  Tarby makes a hasty retreat, and Lewis knows he has done something terrible by summoning the corpse.  Upon returning home, he finds Florence and Jonathan ready to reveal the whole truth about Isaac.  Isaac had once been Jonathan’s partner, but World War II changed the former.  Isaac came back haunted, and with his witch wife, Selena Izard (Renée Elise Goldberry), had dabbled in blood magic and set the clock in the house.  Jonathan has been trying to stop it, and he now feels it is too dangerous for Lewis to remain in his home.  Instead, the boy goes to stay with Florence.  While there, he notices a ghostly figure in Mrs. Hanchett’s (Colleen Camp) window.  He gets her to Jonathan’s place, but then it is revealed that she is Selena.  With Isaac now in the house, Florence, Jonathan, and Lewis are thrown out.  Gathering themselves, they manage to get back inside.  Now, it is up to Lewis, who had deciphered the map for the house, to use his own abilities to stop the clock from turning the world back to a time before mankind.  Upon doing so, he gains the support of Florence and Jonathan and confidence at school.

One of the characters I did not discuss in The House with a Clock in Its Walls is Rose Rita Pottinger (Vanessa Ann Williams).  She is in the film, but barely has a role.  The books are different, but that is Hollywood for you.  Hollywood is also much more tolerant of stories involving magic than are Christians, which is interesting when you consider the scribblings of writers like C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.  Again, these are works of the imagination, so they should be taken as such.  At the same time, I found myself making copious notes while watching this tale of wizardry, which jibes with the fact that Bellairs was a Catholic.  Indeed, at one time he considered becoming a priest.  There are many themes that I could cover, but the one I will address is probably the most controversial: the need to be quiet and listen.  This is great advice for prayer.  The bad part is that it is being used to teach a kid to summon the magic within.  It is in these kinds of words that render this kind of advice tricky for a young person.  We all have a power within us because that is how God made us.  It is something most everyone believes without completely understanding it, which is partly how we get such perversions as witchcraft.  I do not mean to be harsh, but it is especially dangerous to contend with these forces without proper Christian discernment and teaching.  God is so much bigger and powerful than we can ever fully comprehend, and religious history and literature are full of anecdotes about the pitfalls of dealing with them incorrectly.  However, if we could somehow divorce ourselves from those dangers, the advice to be quiet and listen is, again, wonderful to keep in mind when developing a relationship with God.  Doing so is the beginning of obedience to God, and doing His will is all we need to know of the Divine.

Because Lewis uses these skills for witchcraft in The House with a Clock in the Walls, is a definite mark against the film.  When understood in the proper context, which is my job as a Catholic reviewer, then it becomes a little more digestible.  For this reason, I recommend the movie.