Clichéd, dull and sadly miscast

Rating: 4/10 (31 December 2014)

Daniel Radcliff has become synonymous with Harry Potter since its transfer to the big screen. Understandably, now he's too old for the part and the franchise is over, he's looking to move on to other things and shed his 'boy wizard' image. In The Woman in Black, he plays a young lawyer in the nineteen century who comes a cropper with some nasty ghosts.
First of all, well done to the film-makers for getting Daniel Radcliff in the film to begin with. I hear he doesn't come cheap. However, this is the film's main selling point, i.e. yes it's Harry Potter not playing Harry Potter for the first time. Unfortunately, competent actor that Daniel Radcliff is, he just comes across as too damn young to play the part.
Although, if that was the film's only let-down, I could probably suspend my disbelief and just go with it. But no. The film's main problem is that it's simply not scary. There are a few bits that will make you jump, but that's about it - 'spooky' comes in the form of (normally) inanimate objects suddenly moving, i.e. a rocking horse, a music box, a children's stuffed toy and so on.
It manages to borrow bits from other horror movies, like The Ring, but the fact is, it's very slow and not particular interesting. It's not really Radcliff's fault - a fair portion of the story involves him spending his time just wandering round empty buildings looking scared. During these scenes, he has no one to play off and you just find yourself waiting for whatever is going to creepily move to do so and offer the 'scare scene.'
Good luck to Radcliff in shedding his wizard image. This film will go some way to showing he can do more than just ride a broomstick. Trouble is, he's in a scary film that's just not scary.