Surprised by the darkness

Rating: 7/10 (21 November 2001)

When I read the first book, I found myself disturbed by it; beneath the surface humor and the compelling fantasy world, there was a darker edge. I found myself unable to read more. I went to see the movie, expecting to find the dark edge gone, reduced to light and enjoyable kids' fare; I wanted to discover that the edge was only in my own mind. Instead, I was surprised to see these kids bleeding and being hacked at by magicked stones with swords. The dark edge I had felt in the books was magnified on the screen, not diminished. The flying keys being rammed into the closed door was a shock for me--these little kids are messing about with rampant and powerful evil. The defenses around the stone were meant to be strong, and they were supposedly cast by "good" people, but they were intended very seriously to kill indiscriminately--how "good" is that? I felt that the explanation of Harry's survival as having "skin covered with love" fell a bit flat for me, and the physical abuse in the opening sequence was accompanied by Exorcist-type supernatural disturbances (I found myself almost feeling bad for the Dursleys, being attacked by all that mail! Almost--but not quite.) Perhaps if this film was aimed at the 16-26 demographic and was billed as a film with a dark edge to it, I would not have been surprised by the presence of darkness. However, as a children's movie, I found it seriously lacking.