Last September horror director Eli Roth delivered his first children’s movie with THE HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS, which despite being aimed at kids was surprisingly freaky in parts. The creepiest element by far was Kyle MacLachlan’s villainous character – Isaac Izzard – who is brought back from the dead and seeks out his revenge in the final act. The makeup effects were chilling, and in this new, exclusive featurette you can take a look behind the scenes at the creation of the makeup and hear from Roth, MacLachlan and stars Jack Black and Owen Vaccaro about the unsettling appearance of the normally dashing actor. I mean, he’s still a bit dashing with the makeup on, just with a bit of zombie mixed in.
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As quirky and light-hearted as the movie is for most of the runtime, HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS recalled an era of 80s and 90s movies that could actually scare the children they were meant for, like THE WITCHES from Nicolas Roeg. MacLachlan’s character is certainly unnerving, and the makeup team deserves a large shout out for that, thanks to that thin layer of makeup that gave him those frightening features without hiding the actor underneath completely. Even I was a little freaked out, so I can assume some children had a hard time sleeping after seeing the movie.
The movie based on the 1973 book of the same name from John Bellairs earned solid reviews (our own JimmyO gave it an 8/10) and made $130 million globally at the box office, making it Roth's biggest movie to date. Along with MacLachlan, Black and Vaccaro the movie stars Cate Blanchett, Sunny Suljic (MID90S) and Renée Elise Goldsberry (SISTERS) and is out on Blu-ray December 18, and is on Digital now.
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Here's the synopsis:
Ten-year-old Lewis goes to live with his oddball uncle in a creaky old house that contains a mysterious `tick tock' noise. He soon learns that Uncle Jonathan and his feisty neighbour, Mrs Zimmerman, are powerful practitioners of the magic arts. When Lewis accidentally awakens the dead, the town's sleepy facade suddenly springs to life, revealing a secret and dangerous world of witches, warlocks and deadly curses.