"What the hell's going on?"
"Complete nonsense!"
Susan Hill's old-fashioned supernatural potboiler is a good fit for the Hammer brand but it makes a less successful transition from novel to film than it did to the stage. In spite of excellent design and location/studio settings, if you know the basic material and have any sense of horror conventions, this film will do little to engage; however, if you are under 12 years old - as evidenced by those present in the cinema audience - it will be an exciting thrill-ride. The period setting is often undermined by modern techniques, as the jumps are all provided by sudden flash insert shots, J-horror-styled children, Paranormal Activity's empty doorways and very loud stings, rather than building and relying on an increasing sense of dread. Radcliffe does very good work consistently, but like the gutless and sentimental ending, the film as a whole feels like something of a cop-out.
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