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Nightbooks

Nightbooks

Fantasy · Horror · Family · 2021

Alex, a boy obsessed with scary stories, is trapped by a witch in her modern, magical New York City apartment. His original hair-raising tales are the only thing keeping him safe as he desperately tries to find a way out of this twisted place.

Movie details

Nightbooks

“Write for your life.”

2021 Fantasy · Horror · Family 1h 41m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.1 / 10

Community rating

Alex, a boy obsessed with scary stories, is trapped by a witch in her modern, magical New York City apartment. His original hair-raising tales are the only thing keeping him safe as he desperately tries to find a way out of this twisted place.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Nightbooks?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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A Witches' Ball

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The Witches

The Witches

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While staying at a hotel in England with his grandmother, Helga, a young boy named Luke inadvertently spies on a convention of witches. The Grand High Witch reveals a plan to turn all children into mice via a magical formula. When they discover the eavesdropper, the witches test the formula on him. Now, with the help of Helga and hotel manager Mr Stringer, Luke the mouse must fight back against the witches.

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Four Kids and It

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A group of kids on holiday in Cornwall meet a magical creature on the beach with the power to grant wishes.

The Black Cauldron

The Black Cauldron

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Taran is an assistant pigkeeper with boyish dreams of becoming a great warrior. However, he has to put the daydreaming aside when his charge, an oracular pig named Hen Wen, is kidnapped by an evil lord known as the Horned King. The villain hopes Hen will show him the way to The Black Cauldron, which has the power to create a giant army of unstoppable soldiers.

The Unhealer

The Unhealer

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Welcome to Smelliville

Welcome to Smelliville

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The Oggly family arrive at the municipal rubbish dump of Smelliville and must look for a new home, but they never feel really welcome anywhere. They stink and are for most humans just a tad too oggly. When Firebottom, the family dragon, crash-lands on the run-down rubbish tip of the small town of Smelliville, the Ogglies at once feel at home. And it's here they want to stay.

The Legend of Ochi

The Legend of Ochi

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The Secret Kingdom

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Verity and Peter’s trip to the old family mansion takes a turn when the floor of their room suddenly gives way and they fall into an underground chamber where they are met by a civilization of creatures. The leader tells them that Peter's arrival was foretold as he’s the one who can use Great Clock of the Citadel to restart time and destroy the Shroud, a malevolent creature who feeds on fear itself...

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Family · 1971

Three children evacuated from London during World War II are forced to stay with an eccentric spinster. The children's initial fears disappear when they find out she is in fact a trainee witch.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

David Yarovesky

Written by

Mikki Daughtry · Tobias Iaconis

Winslow Fegley

Winslow Fegley

Alex

Lidya Jewett

Lidya Jewett

Yasmin

Krysten Ritter

Krysten Ritter

Natacha

Jill Frappier

Jill Frappier

Grizelda

N

Neil Emmanuel Lu

Joshua

Jess Brown

Jess Brown

Mom

Mathieu Bourassa

Mathieu Bourassa

Dad

Court is in session

Put Nightbooks on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Its refusal to behave is the point.”

The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.

The prosecution The Big-Idea Head

“Oddness is not depth.”

A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.