First Trailer For Edward Gorey’s ‘House with a Clock in Its Walls’ Adaptation Arrives

The success of 2015’s Goosebumps helped confirm there’s a massive market for kid-oriented horror films, which the upcoming The House with a Clock in Its Walls hopes to tap into. The film, which is based on an Edward Gorey-illustrated story written by John Bellairs, just got its first trailer, which you can watch above.

In the film, “The magical adventure tells the spine-tingling tale of 10-year-old Lewis 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.”

The blend of family-friendly horror and humor isn’t the only connection this adaptation shares with Goosebumps, as Jack Black stars in the upcoming film, having played R.L. Stine in the aforementioned 2015 movie. House also stars Cate Blanchett, Owen Vaccaro, Kyle MacLachlan, Colleen Camp, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Vanessa Anne Williams, and Sunny Suljic.

Another interesting component of the film is that it was directed by Eli Roth, famous for films like Cabin Fever, Hostel, and the recent Death Wish remake. The filmmaker regularly delivers audiences films that spare no expense with its offerings of gore, while this film for a younger audience will force the director to show restraint in the realm of violence.

House with a Clock in Its Walls is the first installment of a 12-book series written by Bellairs. When the author passed away in 1993, the series of books was continued by Brad Strickland. Many installments in the series featured illustrations by Edward Gorey.

This won’t be the first adaptation of the book, as it was the inspiration for segments on the 1979 anthology series Once Upon A Midnight Scary, which was hosted by Vincent Price.

Roth adapted the story for Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, which often focuses more on family-friendly adventure films than gruesome horror, having previously produced films like Arachnophobia, Jurassic World, and The BFG.

Black’s involvement with this film could be one reason for not reprising his role in the upcoming Goosebumps sequel, Goosebumps: Slappy Halloween. It is currently unknown if Black will be voicing the maniacal puppet in the upcoming film, which is set to open on October 12.

The House with a Clock in Its Walls will debut on September 21st.

Are you looking forward to checking out the new film? Let us know in the comments below!

[H/T YouTube, Universal Pictures]