“Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children”, a dark fantasy-adventure movie that runs a little over two hours, will leave viewers sitting on the edge of their seats.

The movie, based off of the novel of the same name by Ransom Riggs, was directed by Tim Burton and written by Jane Goldman. The film stars experienced actors and actresses in addition to newcomers in the acting profession.

The story follows 16-year-old Jake Portman, played by Asa Butterfield, who ventures to a mysterious island in order to discover the truth as well as gain closure and certainty, which aren’t coming easily to him after consistent visits to a therapist, played by Allison Janney.

After uncovering what seems to be a different world, Jake becomes acquainted with Miss Peregrine, played by Eva Green, and her children at Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Jake’s ordinary life takes an extraordinary turn when the childhood fairy tales he heard from his grandfather become reality, forcing him to make a life-changing decision to protect his newly found friends and family from the creatures of his ancestor’s past.

The film begins slowly by first featuring Jake visiting his grandfather, played by Terence Stamp.  Then Jake is shocked when he finds an unfortunate surprise waiting for him at his grandfather’s home in Florida.

This specific portion of a rather detailed film is nowhere near as thrilling or exciting as it could have been. However, this is only true for the first half hour. Viewers are advised to wait it out because it gets better.

Eventually, the viewers will meet some quirky characters, such as Emma (Ella Purnell), Victor (Louis Davison), Olive (Lauren McCrostie), Enoch (Finlay MacMillan), Bronwyn (Pixie Davis), Horace (Kayden Keeler-Stone), Claire (Raffiella Chapman), Hugh (Milo Parker), Fiona (Georgia Pemberton), Millard (Cameron King), and of course Miss Peregrine, as well as their interesting– some quite disturbing– peculiarities, such as bringing dead objects to life.

The viewers also see Jake encounter the group that all Peculiarities fear, the Hollows and their leader Mr. Barron (Samuel L. Jackson).

The battle between the two groups is undoubtedly the best part and takes up the majority of the two hours. It obtains the perfect combination of thrilling and witty.  Any time something unfortunate occurs, at least one character will attempt to make a joke or do something for laughs.

The story of never-ending excitement is concluded with a series of actions that will definitely leave the viewer wondering what happens to the characters after their traumatic experience of facing their enemies.

“Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” earns four out of five stars. Throughout this story, the viewers are constantly finding out more and more about each character, no matter how relevant they are to the main story line. The viewer will find oneself making constant connections with the characters although each is very different from any real-life person.

However, the movie could have jumped into the action a bit sooner and should have contained a clearer climax. This lack of a climax could be because the entire story is one climax after another once the plot finally takes off.

This tale, no doubt, is nerve-racking, hair-raising, spine-chilling and blood-curdling.  While it might not be the next “Harry Potter” or “Hunger Games”, it is definitely worth taking Jake’s journey with him through abnormality and peculiarity.