The story follows Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) as a widowed lawyer and now single father who is struggling both with the death of his wife and financially, now on his last chance with the law firm he represents Kipps is sent to represent the affairs of a recently deceased eccentric woman in a small village. When he arrives he finds that not all is what it seems and the locals are terrorized by something and holding onto a dark secret, soon he learns the house of his dead client is haunted by a vengeful spirit who is lost looking for someone or something and that no one in the village not even the children are safe from her.
I have always been a huge fan of horror films and have truthfully been let down by many efforts in the past, if unlike me your idea of a horror film is the more blood and gore the better than this movie is certainly not for you. This is a classic tale, a good old fashioned ghost story that replaces the needless violence and gore with chills. Radcliffe’s character is followed around by the loss of his wife and you get the impression the hauntings he experiences while terrifying almost give him a sense of comfort in knowing there might be an afterlife and he will be with his wife again someday. Very early on in the film Kipps befriends one of the locals a Mr. Daily played very well by the wonderful Ciaran Hinds, Daily is the only one in the village with a motor car and is also the only local resident who does not believe in the hauntings, giving a nice balance to the piece.
In terms of the acting, Radcliffe is asked to carry large chunks of the movie as the only one on screen and it is a role he does extremely well, you can ask nothing more than for him to show his emotion and react with a sense of realism to the hauntings he is experiencing and he excels in this. For me he has shown here that he has many fine years ahead of him on the big screen as an actor with genuine talent, at first it is somewhat of a stretch to see him as a widowed man with a six or so year old son but he manages to pull it off admirably. Ciaran Hinds plays his role very well and is a character that at times is hard to figure out almost like he himself is harbouring something within him that affects him greatly, all the actors do the jobs they are asked very well but for me it is Janet Mc Teer in the role of Mrs Daily who gives the best of these bit part performances and steals the spotlight in the scenes she is in.
There are a few ways in which this film is lacking, certainly it fills in some gaps with a few flashbacks and letters from the past but it seems as though we are one or two of these shy of really understanding what happened to get this mysterious ghostly figure to the point where she wants revenge on the entire village. there is also sometimes a bit of predictability to the scares and some of the scenes do not seem to add much weight to the story, the last twenty minutes or so come together very quickly and getting the ending of a horror film right is not an easy task but it is something they manage very well here and it gives a nice balance to what has come before.
Once more this is not a film that has lots of blood or gore, you will not leave the cinema crying and you are certainly not likely to have nightmares for the next six months. However it is a film for anyone out there who likes the classic tale of suspense and a very good ghost story, it has chills that will make you jump, it is very well acted and you will not be disappointed by this film. It is very much a throwback to the classic horror tale and I for one only hope it leads to a new batch of horror films in this style, the long and the short of it all if you are going to part with your hard earned cash in the next few weeks to see a film this is one that will not disappoint.
I have always been a huge fan of horror films and have truthfully been let down by many efforts in the past, if unlike me your idea of a horror film is the more blood and gore the better than this movie is certainly not for you. This is a classic tale, a good old fashioned ghost story that replaces the needless violence and gore with chills. Radcliffe’s character is followed around by the loss of his wife and you get the impression the hauntings he experiences while terrifying almost give him a sense of comfort in knowing there might be an afterlife and he will be with his wife again someday. Very early on in the film Kipps befriends one of the locals a Mr. Daily played very well by the wonderful Ciaran Hinds, Daily is the only one in the village with a motor car and is also the only local resident who does not believe in the hauntings, giving a nice balance to the piece.
In terms of the acting, Radcliffe is asked to carry large chunks of the movie as the only one on screen and it is a role he does extremely well, you can ask nothing more than for him to show his emotion and react with a sense of realism to the hauntings he is experiencing and he excels in this. For me he has shown here that he has many fine years ahead of him on the big screen as an actor with genuine talent, at first it is somewhat of a stretch to see him as a widowed man with a six or so year old son but he manages to pull it off admirably. Ciaran Hinds plays his role very well and is a character that at times is hard to figure out almost like he himself is harbouring something within him that affects him greatly, all the actors do the jobs they are asked very well but for me it is Janet Mc Teer in the role of Mrs Daily who gives the best of these bit part performances and steals the spotlight in the scenes she is in.
There are a few ways in which this film is lacking, certainly it fills in some gaps with a few flashbacks and letters from the past but it seems as though we are one or two of these shy of really understanding what happened to get this mysterious ghostly figure to the point where she wants revenge on the entire village. there is also sometimes a bit of predictability to the scares and some of the scenes do not seem to add much weight to the story, the last twenty minutes or so come together very quickly and getting the ending of a horror film right is not an easy task but it is something they manage very well here and it gives a nice balance to what has come before.
Once more this is not a film that has lots of blood or gore, you will not leave the cinema crying and you are certainly not likely to have nightmares for the next six months. However it is a film for anyone out there who likes the classic tale of suspense and a very good ghost story, it has chills that will make you jump, it is very well acted and you will not be disappointed by this film. It is very much a throwback to the classic horror tale and I for one only hope it leads to a new batch of horror films in this style, the long and the short of it all if you are going to part with your hard earned cash in the next few weeks to see a film this is one that will not disappoint.
