Harry Potter And The Good Gothic Gloom

Rating: 8/10 (27 May 2012)

Two things I freely admit in advance: I'm not a big fan of horror films made nowadays, and I do tend to make fun of the modern fashion of films of all kinds to over-rely on the use of cgi cartoonery. However, this one is an exception. It uses a necessary amount of cartoonery to help generate a spooky atmosphere, and although shocks galore has no gore.
Young employee sent by firm of solicitors to none too friendly North to help wrap up a dead person's estate, an estate apparently situated next to a village full of weird yokels with secrets and in the middle of swampy washland, gloomy woods and a doom laden time warp. For the first hour it's really good (pity it wasn't two hours), backwards and forwards in a dark candle-dependant Gothic house and grounds, unfortunately it then gradually becomes rather ordinary with the ending telegraphed to the viewer in advance. Instead of a walking into the sunset ending nowadays a walking into the spotlighted grimy fog does. Every trick in the book was trotted out to great effect, I noted all the obvious bits from three of my favourite films The Innocents, The Haunting and Diabolique. Serious young man Daniel Radcliffe said less than the dog he was with, and could've played Leonardo DiCaprio's son in Titanic and got away with it, but was to me surprisingly good in the main role.
But I was surprised by how good the entire film was overall, a judicious mix of shocks and cartoonery that actually worked and even has me hoping I will be spared long enough to revisit it!