The Spiderwick Chronicles

Twin brothers Jared and Simon (both played by Freddie Highmore), along with their sister Mallory (Sarah Bolger) move house from the city after their parents’ divorce to the creepy and isolated Spiderwick Estate. The house is owned by their Aunt Lucinda, who is now in a mental hospital, and is littered with her eccentricities, like the scores of bottles of honey, tomato sauce and oatmeal, as much as it is with dust and cobwebs. As they try to settle into their new life, strange things keep happening in the house; there are odd noises and objects are disappearing. These disturbances are blamed on Jared, who is angrily refusing to accept living without his father and away from New York City. While investigating the house to prove his innocence, Jared discovers a key which unlocks a chest in which is hidden Spiderwick’s Field Guide, written by the late owner of the house, Lucinda’s missing father, Arthur Spiderwick. In opening the book, despite a note warning against doing so, Jared and his siblings uncover a hidden world of fairies and goblins, which exist invisibly around them, and inadvertently put the house and the whole family in great danger.

Spiderwick belongs to the genre of children’s films that retain an appeal for adults, reminiscent of recent hits such as The Golden Compass, The Chronicles of Narnia and The Harry Potter series. The plot is fast-paced, mixing themes such as divorce and dislocation, with high suspense and a fantasy setting. The heavy use of CGI characters such as the evil Mulgarath, voiced by Nick Nolte, and the friendly, but volatile brownie Thimbletack (Martin Short), pays off, being realistic and interactive enough to keep the action convincing. With moments ranging from excitingly frightening to comic, Mark Waters, also the director of Mean Girls and Freaky Friday, succeeds in keeping up the suspense. The house is genuinely eerie, and those not scared by the monstrous goblins and ogres, will find their kicks in the tense, mysterious scenes in the shadowy Spiderwick estate.

Cassandra Scott