Based on a children’s book, though you want a circle of salt around your bed after seeing the movie *** Three Stars

By Robin Rowe

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 2/14/08 – The wily, yet helpful, hobgoblin Hogsqueal of The Spiderwick Chronicles is Seth Rogen. After his dramatic line “Vengeance or death!”, Seth lightly ad-libs, “Preferably vengeance”. This film is dark for a family film, and could use more humor like that.

Three children, bitter Jared, his studious twin brother Simon (both Freddie Highmore), and fencing enthusiast older sister Mallory (Sarah Bolger) move into the creepy run-down Spiderwick Estate. Jarad discovers hidden in the house a very dangerous book written by his uncle Arthur who vanished sixty years ago. Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You. Despite a clear warning, Jarad chooses to open the book. Once opened, the book unleashes a world surrounding the Spiderwick Estate inhabited by goblins, fairies and other fantastic beings…many of them unfriendly.

Jared is just angry enough to be considered disturbed, or at least in need of anger management counseling. He’s perhaps an odd choice for the hero of a family film. Sword-happy sister Mallory is more likable and a better adult than the mom. In that sense, it’s Sarah Bolger’s movie. The dilapidated Spiderwick Estate, which could be the house from The Addams Family, was actually a set constructed in Quebec at Cap Ste-Jacques park. Freddie Highmore, who was Arthur in Arthur and the Invisibles, plays both twins. The older sister is Sarah Bolger, who played opposite her real-life sister for In America. Mom is Mary-Louise Parker from Weeds. The acting is superb and the magical creatures expertly animated by both ILM and Tippett Studio.

Freddie Highmore plays the twins so convincingly that it seems there really are twins. “I’m British, not American,” says Highmore. “We had a dialect coach who helped me with the accent and also to make the ‘identical’ twins sound individual. Jared acts tough while Simon is quieter, more bookish. And, they haven’t reacted in the same way to their parents’ splitting up. There are some pretty scary scenes, but actually shooting those sequences was the most exciting. Clinging to the top of a tower can make your heart race whether you’re attached to a hidden harness or not. We wanted the world of Spiderwick to be feel completely real, that there’s real danger and excitement. And, that the kids really had to pull together to survive.”

“I would certainly say Mallory is feisty,” says Sarah Bolger who’s from Ireland but has no accent in the film. “It’s been great fun playing her, especially the fencing and the sword fighting. For the sword fighting sequences, Bolger took a crash course in fencing. “There were many stunts in the film, and a huge amount of fencing,” says Bolger. “In every scene, I have my sword, which I loved, but I definitely had to train for it. I did three weeks of training in Montreal both for the fencing and some of the stunts. I also trained for three to four weeks in Dublin. I really enjoyed the action scenes. Even though I got a few bruises, it was always worth it, so much amazing fun. But I loved the dialogue scenes, because they are so rich and true to life.”

“I was drawn to the kids in the middle of this broken family and how the whole situation ultimately helped to bring them together,” says producer and co-writer Karey Kirkpatrick. “The idea here was to have a real world where inexplicable and often frightening things happen,” says producer Mark Canton. What grounds it and makes it resonate is that we are dealing with a real family with real problems, and through this adventure they are able to find the magic inside themselves.”

“In Spiderwick all unexplained phenomena in the world are due to fantastical creatures that are all around us”, says director Mark Waters. The movie is based on the best-selling series of children’s books written by Holly Black and illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi.

The premise of Spiderwick is simple, that children can see magic that adults are too quick to dismiss as imaginary. Spiderwick is more Lord of the Rings than Harry Potter. The invisible goblins of Spiderwick leave horrific visible bites. Spiderwick is very scary, almost a horror movie. Well, an old horror movie, before horror become gore-porn. Spiderwick more adult than its family audience theme. You might not want to bring young children to see it, unless you them putting a protective ring of salt around their beds like in the movie. That the parents are in a bitter divorce is also not family-friendly.

Modern family films, whether it’s The Spiderwick Chronicles, the latest Harry Potter, Narnia, The Golden Compass, or The Water Horse are taking a darker, lonelier, edgier approach because film producers want to show scenarios that seem real and that relate to modern broken families. That means fewer films for happy families seeking light-hearted escapist entertainment.

Release date: February 14th, 2008

Duration: 100 minutes

Rated PG for scary creature action and violence, peril and some thematic elements.

There’s also a Spiderwick video game in development.

Robin Rowe is the executive producer of COMEDY WALK (www.comedywalk.com).

###