Why it is best to see certain films with as full a screening as possible!
I haven't seen the play (only 2 actors involved!) or read the book this is based on but I had heard enough about it to know this was a well admired and appreciated ghost story.
The film shows the boy who was Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) play a very different character, a mournful father who through his work is lead to an old abandoned house at the end of a causeway.
You can look the plot up, but needless to say this is a great scare filled experience. The 12A rating proved a full audience can be genuinely frightened without lashings of gore and severed body parts. Doors slam, figures are briefly glimpsed, a rocking chair goes mad!
All this is excellently realised and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing the audience shriek in terror!
It got to the point where the group of girls to my right were crying, "no, no, no!" at the anticipation of what might happen!
The film-makers use a lot of tricks to keep the audience engaged, although there was one section involving a swamp and a car where I thought they missed a trick. A glimpse of the woman in black at this point would have been unbearable!
I enjoyed the flashbacks, and the film in general.
I understand the films ending is quite differently to the stage play, but I somehow think it works. Certainly the way they have developed the Radcliffe character, and we see some sort of resolution for him and his family, even if slightly unexpected.
So a great scary movie, but will it be as frightening on a small screen after repeat viewings? Probably not. See it at a cinema! I find it more difficult now watching all the films I want to, becoming a Daddy and everything! But films like this remind me of the power of the communal movie watching experience.
4 Potter glasses out of 5
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