Woman in Black Trailer: Daniel Radcliffe Welcomed to the Dollhouse


By now Daniel Radcliffe must be accustomed to children turning and staring at him wherever he goes — toplining the highest-grossing franchise in cinematic history can do that to a guy, even a tiny Englishman. Despite this, the now-retired Harry Potter had to have been a little skeeved out by the Shining-esque glares bestowed upon him by the creepy Victorian moppets on the set of The Woman in Black, his upcoming horror flick. Wearing his best topcoat and furrowing his best, unlined brow, Radcliffe plays a young solicitor who travels to a forlorn castle in what is apparently the Dagobah system to investigate a murderous ghost. While there, many disturbing kids quit playing Quidditch and gaze at him, demanding answers or at least a bag of Bertie Bott’s Beans. (Also turning heads? That a 22-year-old who looks like an underage Elijah Wood is playing a lawyer. But that’s not important right now.) It’s all very atmospheric and director James Watkins shows a particular ability to make creaky toys appear as ominous as any gothy apparition.

Still, we’ll have to wait until February to find out if Radcliffe can cast aside his wizardly ways and successfully defeat a full-nosed foe. Until then, it’s best to pass the time with trivia. Such as: the actor who played the young lawyer in the original, 1989 version of The Woman in Black, was Adrian Rawlins. Years later, Rawlins played James Potter — Harry’s dead dad — in the Harry Potter movies. Thus proving once again that the only thing scarier than girlish ghosts is nepotism.

Filed Under: Scouting Report

Andy Greenwald is a staff writer for Grantland.

Archive @ andygreenwald