The Daniel Radcliffe Exploitation Show

Rating: 5/10 (1 February 2012)

How much you will enjoy this movie will rest heavily on how much you would enjoy looking at Daniel Radcliffe for two hours. For the entirety of the movie, he is either on the screen or a few seconds away from being so. Daniel Radcliffe is a handsome man; great posture, very well-dressed and the sideburns give him a completely new look that is far and away from Harry Potter. But half an hour into the movie, I'm already sick of looking at him. If it was Emma Watson for two hours, then that'd probably be good entertainment for me but I suppose there are lots of movie goers who would prefer Daniel Radcliffe and this should prove good entertainment for them.
The movie plot is a ghost story but really is an excuse to get Daniel Radcliffe alone inside a house where he cautiously walks from room to room with sudden jack in the boxes frights. We get long shots of him cautiously walking towards something and then BAM! something pops out and then we have another long shot of him reacting and adjusting. A large portion of the movie is spent simply looking at Radcliffe. I remember a few such movies where we spend half the movie looking at beautiful female leads but here looking at Radcliffe isn't as engaging for me.
As a horror movie, it's around par or slightly below par. The low budget really shows through and the unimaginative use of the limited budget really makes the movie grind. The scares are cheap and as the movie goes on, it only increases in frequency rather than in scale and so, the movie really never takes off instead just plodding along. On the other hand, by not being one of those digital camera horror movies, it has some clear beautiful shots but again, somewhat wastes it by staying indoors and only using glimpses of the beautiful setting and outdoors of the location. However, in my book, its biggest fault is that it is simply without many new ideas, if follows the horror genre recipe to the tee and becomes rather predictable.
The focus, the center, the star and the reason for the movie is Daniel Radcliffe and unfortunately, there is not much more. This is probably a good enough reason for a lot of movie goers. However, I found the movie dour, risk-averse and unimaginative.