Daniel Radcliffe sees dead people...

Rating: 4/10 (24 May 2014)

Mercilessly slow and derivative thriller has a young widower lawyer in London traveling on business to a remote village on the muddy marsh to settle estate papers on a deceased client; turns out the whole terrified town is helplessly under the thumb of a suicide's ghost bent on revenge. Handsomely photographed in a gloom-and-doom manner--much like "The Others", which, I'm guessing, was purely intentional--this haunted mansion vehicle for a grown-up Daniel Radcliffe begins well but quickly flags. The pointless story, adapted from a novel by Susan Hill, treads too-familiar territory, while director James Watkins paces the proceedings like a funeral (with 'scare' music cues to add intensity). Radcliffe is a sturdy lad, but his face holds no mystery, and his voice doesn't command attention; he spends most of the picture reacting to ghostly comings-and-goings with his eyes wide and his mouth partially ajar. The finale, which would appear to wrap the plot up satisfactorily, is given a last-minute twist which is neither scary nor moving--just confounding. What will it take the appease this woman in black? And does anybody care? *1/2 from ****