Movie review by Russell Pinkston

Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) is a lawyer sent to collect all the papers and documents of a lady who died.  Sounds simple….but the house is way out on an island, in a marsh (the road is covered by the water each evening and is haunted by an evil woman in a black dress).  Arthur discovers strange behavior and suicides of children in the small town nearest to the house especially after someone visits the house.  But he has a child to take care of (his wife and the mother of his child died during childbirth) so he has no choice.   He starts to uncover a mystery that has been buried for years and starts to see strange things while at the house.  He has to solve the mystery fast and get out before he himself is killed by the woman in black.

Daniel Radcliffe stars in only his 3rd non-Harry Potter film (The Tailor of Panama, December Boys) and his first real lead role where he didn’t play a child wizard.  He did pretty good although a couple of times (him on the train) I did think of the  Hogwarts Express train and expected the dementors would appear at any moment.  It’s gonna take a few movies for him to overcome that typecasting but I am rooting for him and I think with the success of this film we will be seeing alot more of Daniel Radcliffe in the future.   

 The film was better than I thought it would be.   It was a pretty decent PG-13 horror film (would of been better as an R rated film…but wouldn’t they all).   This isn’t a movie that has to be seen on the big screen (it didn’t have alot of action and thankfully wasn’t in 3D) so I say Wait to Rent It.   But when you do, watch it with the lights out with someone who scares easy and you will definitely get some enjoyment out of it 🙂