Dan trades wands and flying broomsticks for a haunted house and the woman in black

Rating: 7/10 (18 February 2012)

And the result is a near-perfect movie.
So, the story here is that a young lawyer, played by Radcliff, goes to an isolated village where he is trying to sell a house known as the Eel March house (or something like that). When he gets there, however, he realizes that, not only do the villagers seem very unwelcoming, but he realizes that they keep their children inside the house for most of the movie. That is because they are trying to protect them from the woman in black, who is a ghost that is hell-bent on taking the lives of children, basically as revenge for when her own child died.
The result is that of a great movie. I must say that this is the first time in which I went to a horror movie in the theatre. They scared me so much as a kid, that I did not want to watch any single one. Even the "Goosebumps" on television scared me. But, when I saw the preview, I felt that I should see this movie, even if it is just to see Dan in his first post-Potter role.
Speaking of which, the acting is great here. Ciaran Hinds is great as Daily, the only guy who tries to help Arthur (Dan's character), whether it is to sell the house, or if it deals with the woman in black. Janet McTeer plays his wife, who has some scary moments of her own.
But, I can't leave out Dan. Unfortunately, there was one aspect of him that made me deduct one point from the film, and that was the fact that he was a 22-year-old, playing a father of a four-year-old. He just seemed a little too young to be portraying that aspect, and so because of that, I was, like many others, reminded of Harry. Nevertheless, he is still able to hold his own in the film, and his character is actually someone that we care about.
Speaking of which, what really works in this movie is the character development. We are immediately introduced to Dan's character; the movie does give us glimpses of his past, which is good, because we get to know him more that way. Same with the other characters; Daily is a really likable character, and the villagers are not so much angry as they are scared. It is great character development, and that is very much needed in a film like this, because in a lot of horror films, we just get the young kids who just like to party. Not here, though.
And finally, the scares. This is a movie that doesn't rely on blood, guts, and gore; also unlike other horror films, it simply relies on chills and scares, which is a nice break from the horror films. And let me tell you; there are scares. I definitely jumped a few times, and if a film makes me do that... well, I give it props.
Overall, a great movie. Rotten Tomatoes said that there may not be enough chills for viewers that are more used to the horror films that we usually see. I disagree; there are chills, and there are times where you will jump. Plus, the actors all did a great job, even though there were times that I couldn't get Harry out of my head, and the script and the characterization was well-done. A 9/10 for me.