The second half of September will be a slow period for the box office, as studios are expecting that “Venom” and “A Star Is Born” will take up most of the audience interest when they arrive in October. That said, Universal and Amblin are sending in an interesting contender in the form of “The House With a Clock in its Walls,” the first PG-rated film from gory horror director Eli Roth.
Based on John Bellairs 1973 YA novel of the same name, “Clock” is a film that takes several pages from the classic Amblin dark fantasy films of the 1980s, like “Gremlins” and “The Goonies,” designed to give kids a good scare.