THE HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS

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Scaredy-cat 10-year-old Lewis Barnavelt (Owen Vaccaro) travels by bus to the sleepy 1950s town of Zebedee in Michigan to live with his estranged uncle Jonathan (Jack Black).

The boy’s quixotic relative wears a kimono and lives in a creepy house full of ticking clocks.

Lewis learns that the building used to belong to a deranged couple called Isaac and Selena Izard (Kyle MacLachlan, Renee Elise Goldsberry), who concealed a Doomsday clock within the walls.

Jonathan, a warlock, and his sharp-tongued neighbour Florence Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett), a kindly witch, hope to locate the demonic timepiece before the end of days.

Lewis excitedly joins the noble quest in the hope that he might shake his tag as the “creepy little runt” at school and impress one

of the popular boys, Corrigan (Sunny Suljic).

Adapted from John Bellairs’ novel, The House With A Clock In Its Walls is an entertaining and outlandish yarn, which delights until a freaky final 15 minutes when madness takes hold and director Eli Roth flings digital trickery at the screen in the hope something will stick.

While the resolution disappoints, Black and Blanchett are consistently amusing and Vaccaro wrings out copious tears on cue to have us rooting for his Harry Potter-esque orphan. Tarby