The Spiderwick Chronicles

The Grace family moves from New York into a decaying old estate that once belonged to their great-great-uncle, Arthur Spiderwick. The children, twins Jared and Simon and their older sister Mallory, are unhappy about the upheaval, and their mother Helen has her own reasons for the fresh start. Strange things soon begin happening around the house: objects vanish, noises sound at night, and accidents occur. Jared, the most restless of the three, gets blamed for much of it, but he is convinced something else is at work. Searching the house, he comes across Arthur Spiderwick's illustrated guide to the magical creatures living hidden all around, and by opening it he stirs a world of faeries, goblins and other beings into life. Together with his brother and sister, he has to deal with what that world now wants from his family, including the ogre Mulgarath.

Mark Waters directed the film, the fifth of the fifteen features he has made, arriving between Just Like Heaven and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. The screenplay is credited to Karey Kirkpatrick, David Berenbaum and John Sayles, and the large production mounted by Paramount, Nickelodeon Movies and The Kennedy/Marshall Company cost about 90 million dollars, returning roughly 164 million worldwide. Freddie Highmore plays both twins, with Sarah Bolger, Mary-Louise Parker, David Strathairn, Joan Plowright and Nick Nolte in supporting roles.

On IMDb the film holds 6.5 out of 10 from around 109,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.7 from roughly 2,950, while a critics' rating of 6.8 from 149 reviews places professional opinion slightly above the audience averages.