By Mr Hull's Movie Guides
Watch the Trailer
Why Watch This Movie With Your Students
Here's what your students naturally take away from the movie, whether through themes, values, ideas, or perspectives.
🕰️ A gentle, guided step into horror. The movie was built as an introduction to the horror genre for younger viewers, easing from lighter, funnier scares into a more intense final act. Students who are curious about horror but not ready for anything graphic get a controlled, age-appropriate way to test that interest.
🧳 A story about grief without saying the word. Lewis has just lost both parents, and that loss shapes almost everything he does, including the choice that puts the story in motion. The movie never turns this into a lecture, but it gives students a concrete example of how grief can quietly influence a character's decisions.
👨👩👦 A household nobody planned for. Jonathan is Lewis's uncle by blood, but he is unprepared to raise a child, and Mrs. Zimmerman has no obligation to either of them at all. The movie shows the three building something that works anyway, through effort and choice rather than a ready-made family structure, which opens up conversation about what actually holds a family together.
📚 A bookish, curious kid as the hero. Lewis is quiet, awkward, and would rather read the dictionary than fit in with the popular kids at his new school. The movie makes his curiosity and love of learning the exact qualities that save the day, which is a message worth putting in front of students who feel the same way about themselves.
🎃 A genuinely fitting Halloween watch. Jack-o'-lanterns, a haunted-looking mansion, and a plot that peaks on Halloween night make this a natural seasonal pick. It has the atmosphere of a spooky season classic without needing an R rating to get there.
🎭 Jack Black and Cate Blanchett playing off each other. Jonathan and Mrs. Zimmerman trade insults and banter throughout the movie, and that dynamic gives it a comedic backbone even in its darker moments. Students get to see two very different performance styles working together to carry a story that keeps shifting tone.
Age Suitability and Content
This movie is rated PG.
⚠️ Things to be aware of:
- Frequent creepy imagery and several jump scares.
- One scene shows a child bullied at school, pushed against a wall and punched.
- Mild language is used a few times, including 'hell' and 'damn.'
- No drinking, drug use, or smoking is shown in the movie.
📋 A free editable parent permission slip is available for this movie. It explains the educational benefits of watching movies in class and includes a space for parental consent. → Download Free Permission Slip on TpT (Free resource)
Note for educators: Movie details and age ratings in this post are sourced from IMDb, Common Sense Media, and Wikipedia to help ensure accuracy.
How My Movie Guide Helps You Teach It
📚 English Language Arts Teachers. The guide's three differentiated sets of comprehension questions, all with answer keys, make it easy to match the reading and writing demands to different groups of students. The 9-scene storyboard and synopsis writing task add a sequencing and summarizing component that goes beyond straightforward comprehension, asking students to identify and condense the story's most important moments in their own words.
🗣️ ESL and ELL Teachers. The 35-question multiple choice set was written with ESL and ELL students in mind, giving them a lower-barrier way to follow along and demonstrate understanding without requiring full sentence answers. The movie's clear visual storytelling and relatively straightforward plot also make it accessible for students who are still building their English vocabulary and confidence.
🌐 Social Studies Teachers. The movie's 1955 setting offers a mid-century American backdrop, and Isaac Izard's backstory touches on World War II and its lasting effect on the people who lived through it. The guide does not include dedicated social studies activities, but the comprehension questions keep students engaged with these details as they watch.
🎬 Substitute Teachers and Cover Lessons. The guide's comprehension question sets, storyboard, and synopsis task are self-contained and organized, with answer keys included for all three comprehension sets. A substitute can hand out the materials and run the session without having seen the movie themselves.
🏠 Homeschool Parents. The House with a Clock in its Walls works well for a single student, especially one who enjoys fantasy and is ready for a gentle step into spookier stories. The guide's differentiated comprehension sets let a parent choose the right level of challenge, and the storyboard and synopsis tasks give a home learner a creative way to demonstrate understanding of the story. The book-to-movie connection also opens the door to pairing the movie with John Bellairs' original novel.
💙 SEL Teachers. Lewis's grief, his struggle to fit in at a new school, and his eventual honesty about the mistake he made all give students a way into conversations about loss, belonging, and taking responsibility. The guide does not include dedicated SEL activities, but the comprehension questions and storyboard task give students a structured way to engage with the movie while these themes play out.
🌟 Supporting All Learners Movie guides can be a wonderfully calm fit for students with autism, learning difficulties, and mild to severe disabilities. The structured format gives every student a clear purpose during viewing, easing uncertainty and allowing them to engage at their own pace. If you teach in a special education or learning support setting, you may find this guide a gentle and practical resource. Find out more about why movies work for diverse learners.
The guide does not include dedicated social studies or SEL activities. The comprehension questions are what keep students accountable for these parts of the movie while they watch.
What's Inside the Guide
This is a 12-page classroom-ready resource.
Part 1: Comprehension Questions
Three differentiated sets of chronological comprehension questions: 50 full-sentence questions, a shorter 35-question full-sentence set, and 35 multiple choice questions. Answer keys are included for all three sets, and the multiple choice set is well suited to ESL students.
Part 2: Storyboard and Synopsis
Students draw a 9-scene storyboard of what they judge to be the movie's most important moments, with a brief description for each scene, then use that storyboard to write a synopsis of the movie.
How These Guides Work: From Movie to Lesson
A movie is not a break from learning. It reaches students through sight, sound, and story at once, engaging the brain in ways text alone does not, and the structured work around it is what turns the viewing into a genuine lesson. You can read the research behind this on the Why Movies Work page.
- A Teacher Notes and General Directions page opens the guide with a brief overview of everything inside: what the movie is about, then each part of the guide in order with a short description of what it entails. You know what to expect from the whole resource before you hand out a single page, so you can pick up the guide cold and teach it the same day.
- Answer keys are included for the comprehension question sets, so grading is quick and you are not rewatching the movie to check answers. Some guides also include example answers for the creative and written activities.
- Print and go: classroom ready, with no additional preparation needed. Print one the morning you need it and the lesson is ready.
- Substitute and first-timer friendly. A guide can be handed to a substitute or picked up by a teacher covering the topic for the first time. Nobody running the session needs to have seen the movie.
- Differentiated comprehension sets. Most guides include two or three question sets at different difficulty levels, and most include a multiple-choice option that works well for ESL and ELL students. One class set covers your strongest readers, your strugglers, and your language learners without separate prep.
- Activities that go beyond recall. Each guide includes structured activities that ask students to engage with the movie, not just watch it, ranging from creative and written tasks to discussion and critical thinking questions depending on the guide. That variety matters in a mixed classroom: a student who freezes on a written question set may show real understanding through a drawing or a creative task, and a confident writer gets room to go beyond recall. For the teacher, it turns a movie session into work that can actually be assessed: comprehension questions show whether students followed the plot, and the activities beyond them show whether they understood it.
