Pun Salad

It's Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe! And he's in an adult role! Good for him.

He plays Arthur Kipps, a young lawyer in early 20th century England. Arthur's a widower, his wife having died four years previous in childbirth. He's still pretty broken up about it, and his ongoing depression is beginning to bum out his son, Joseph.

Arthur is also not pulling his weight at his law firm; he's given one last chance to redeem himself: travel up to a remote village to straighten out the financial affairs of the late Mrs. Drablow, mistress of Eel Marsh House.

But here's what we know that Arthur doesn't: a strange supernatural force afflicts the village, one that causes the village's children to seek their own demise. The villagers have figured out there's a connection to Eel Marsh House, and that Arthur's likely to irk the evil spirit even more by his presence. So they're pretty hostile. Understandable, actually.

Things get darker and more threatening as Arthur gradually discovers what's going on. He (eventually) comes to realize that his plan to have his son come up for a pleasant visit was a dreadful mistake, and his only hope is to mollify the ghost in time. But will he?

Not bad, but there's a lot of Bad Things happening to kids in this movie, and that's kind of nasty. Also I didn't care for the ending, which (without spoilers) is of a type pretty common in the horror genre.