Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Rated PG

IMDB Quote: "Harry ignores warnings not to return to Hogwarts, only to find the school plagued by a series of mysterious attacks and a strange voice haunting him."

Content:

Violence: 4 There are several scenes of threats of violence and acted violence between individuals

Blood and Gore: 3 Messages are written in blood on the walls, there are also "petrified" or frozen bodies found (they are not dead just frozen by magic)

Drug and Alcohol Use: 1 There is no blatant drug or alcohol use. It may be implied in some instances that alcohol is being drank but it is not obvious

Sex and Sensual Material: 1 There is no blatant sexual or sensual material. There is reference to one of the main character's mothers "fancying" a man other than her husband. Other than that there is literally nothing to worry about in this category for this film

Language: 1 There are a few words for those viewers in the UK but for the viewers in the US there is next to nothing in terms of language. 

Frightening Scenes: 6 There are several intense scenes throughout this film, some of which are mentioned in the review. It is strongly recommended that parents view this film prior to allowing children view it.

Review Warning Contains Spoilers:

Spiders and Wizards and House Elves Oh My! In this second installment of Harry Potter, our hero travels back to Hogwarts for his second year at the school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But before he can Win Guadium Leviosa things begin to go very wrong. First, he gets no letters from his friends, He can’t get on the train platform because of  some magic barrier and then Mrs. Norris the grounds keeper’s cat winds up petrified with a strange message written in blood beside her on the wall about the chamber of secrets and it being opened. Students around the school begin to drop like flies, and at every scene, there are spiders leaving in hoards. And lastly, the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher is utterly useless with just about everything he attempts to do

Hillarity and drama ensues in this film. We have cars that fly, witches that do their chores with magic and screaming mandrake plants. And if that’s not enough, there are huge spiders. Now we all know that when we say huge spiders that can be a relative term. The spider Aragog from this film puts the great Sheba from Lord of the Rings to shame and not only is it huge… but it talks! Within moments, you’re no longer watching Harry Potter but some twisted rendition of Eight Legged Freaks.

Some of the humor in this film with likely make you moan like Myrtle and make you wish that you hadn’t put this in your player in the first place. While other scenes are so intense that you are unsure of whether or not this film is actually supposed to be aimed at young children, as the rating would suggest. You find out if you weren’t paying attention in the last film that even wizards get detention, there are nonsense puns like Mrs. Sprout who grows plants in her greenhouse and lastly you find out that even among witches and wizards there is a level of racism and hatred.

Critique

Let’s be honest, its hard to find movies these days without some subtle political message imbedded within the context of the film. I never thought however, that Harry Potter would be used as a surrogate for teaching children that racism is bad. Why? Well it could have to do with both the UK’s and the United State’s history of burning witches at the stake. It could also be due to the fact that when you think of witches and wizards you don’t really think of racism. In some instances you may think of Hanzel and Grettle who are almost eaten by a witch, or Snow White who falls prey to her evil stepmother. But witches and wizards typically are not seen as racist… they’re just seen as evil. So when Chris Columbus along with J.K. Rowling insert this subtle racist behavior along with racial slurs against those who don’t have magic its slightly disturbing when you realize that they are talking about all of us.

This chapter of Harry’s life takes the previous installment and turns it darker by unimaginable means. If the parents of the previous film thought that it was too dark for their children to watch then I definitely recommend staying away from this one. I would not call this a standard family film. In fact to say that those under the age of 13 should not watch this I would call an understatement.

While the last film presented the happy and fun aspects that could be witchcraft this film plunges the viewer into a world of darkness and suspense as around every corner there is another who means to harm the hero and his friends.

Recommendation:

Under normal circumstances I leave my recommendations with some leeway for the parents to use their own discretion. However, this time I strongly recommend that this film not be showed to any individuals under the age of 13. While the film seems largely fun and games there are themes within the film that parents must be wary of especially if they have young children. While the film does teach the importance of accepting others (which as Christians we should do) it still has this undertone of hatred among individuals that I would not be comfortable exposing young children to.  It also has a large amount of darkness surrounding Harry Potter and his encounter with another of Voldermort’s games. I cannot emphasize enough that parents must approach this film with a different level of wisdom than they approached the previous film.

If you are unwilling to take my word for it, as always, I recommend screening this film before showing your children.