Hammer House of Horror

Rating: 7/10 (12 September 2014)

Years ago I saw the long-running play of this film but so long ago as to forget almost everything but the scary face of the Woman herself, so it was great to sit in late of a night and let Hammer films scare me once again with a traditional haunted house tale.
Shot in a washed-out, almost monotone kind of colour - scheme, this was a well-paced and beautifully filmed movie, in particular the house interiors and the spectacular views of the desolate, tide-covered road leading up to it. Daniel Radcliffe returns to the supernatural to play a recently widowed young solicitor tasked with investigating the papers attendant on a recent death at said house, only this time he has no magic powers to assist him. In truth he's way too young for the part, especially with a five-year-old looking son in tow, but he otherwise cuts an effectively gaunt figure facing up to the enmity of the village for disturbing the old ghost, who every time she's seen prefigures the death of a young child.
As is the norm in films of this type, despite experiencing some very strange goings on at his first visit to the house, he nonetheless decides to not only return but to stay over alone (bar an accompanying dog) when he could just as easily have had all the relevant papers transported to the inn where he's staying.
Suspense is built up nicely for the fright-scenes with subjective camera shots, flash cuts and an atmospheric music score. There's worthy support for Radcliffe especially from Ciaran Hinds and Janet McTeer as the wealthy couple also struck down by the curse. It all comes to the boil with an unexpectedly callous but in the end appropriate climax, as you realise that Radcliffe and his son could never be happy as they were anyway.
In short, a rattling good ghost story, just like Hammer used to make.