Hear Me Out: ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’ is a horror movie
Whilst many of us either remember the Harry Potter film series for its switch between the borderline ridiculous elements and the heartwarming components that are so profound they bring a tear to the eye of adults, many fans forget that there are some genuinely frightening aspects of the movies, moments which act as a foil to all of the sugary elements that comprise the wizarding world.
Thankfully, the evil laid out in the book by J.K. Rowling was so malign that it gave much scope to the movies’ different directors to bring to life, with the series bursting with villains and evil deeds that make the skin crawl. Typically, it centres around ‘You-Know-Who’, Lord Voldemort and his minions such as Bellatrix Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy. Still, there are plenty of other flecks of wickedness that aren’t directly linked to Voldemort.
However, it must be said that the most iconic darker parts of Harry Potter are linked to the big bad. From the moment in which we find Voldemort’s face attached to the back of Professor Quirrell’s head in The Philosopher’s Stone to the dim-lit cave scene in the Half-Blood Prince, there are many scary aspects of the films that have us wondering whether classing the series as a children’s one is appropriate, as even the ‘King of Horror’ Stephen King has admitted to being scared by one of the characters.
As is well-known, as the characters matured, so did the narrative in what is one of Rowling’s greatest triumphs. This means that the naivety of Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the rest gradually fades into a darker, more worldly sense of being, as it does for all of us over our development from childhood to adulthood. The result of this is that there is a tremendous stylistic disparity between the first and last entries.
However, the second chapter, The Chamber of Secrets, is an anomaly. It is a strong contender to be the most chilling in the entire series, with one now deleted-Reddit user claiming that the film is more in keeping with the horror genre than anything else. It’s a fascinating discussion, as it isn’t unfounded, with the user laying out a series of criteria that means The Chamber of Secrets fit into the horror genre.
In truth, there are horror elements everywhere you look in The Chamber of Secrets. The first, most glaring example is the blood writings on the wall, a classic trope used in various titles from IT to You’re Next. Others include Harry being warned not to go to school, Hagrid’s roosters mysteriously dying, student disappearances, Aragog, the colossal talking spider, and of course, the giant evil serpent, the Basilisk, that lives below Hogwarts who petrifies anyone with one look in the eye.
Some might argue that it is a tenuous point as the main characters in the film are children; however, this is moot, as many horror films involve youngsters, including IT, and that one of the most frightening characters of all time is Damien Thorn from The Omen, a five-year-old. Even when rewatching the movie as an adult, it still manages to send a chill down the spine. Whether you view it through the horror paradigm or not, you cannot doubt that The Chamber of Secrets is one of the most affecting films in the Harry Potter franchise, with it making a bold claim to be the most terrifying from our childhood.
