Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

What’s it about?

The Chamber of Secrets has been opened by the heir of Slytherin. Slytherin was one of the four founders of Hogwarts but left because he wanted to make it only available to ‘pure’ wizards and witches not ‘mudbloods’. Before he left he created this Chamber in which lives some terrible evil. The teachers are afraid that they will have to close Hogwarts and send the students home.

In his second year at Hogwarts, Harry starts hearing voices when he first finds a cat, then two students who have been petrified, that is turned into statues. They’re not dead but they have to wait until herbology classes finish growing Mandrakes which will give them a cure. Hermione is the next victim and when Ron’s sister Ginny is taken into the Chamber, Ron and Harry have to come to the rescue. Ginny is being guarded by the evil Basilisk, a monstrously large snake, which Harry has to fight to save her.

What to look out for

Quite a lot of fantasy violence and scary scenes in this movie that would frighten younger kids such as:

• Dobby the house elf has to punish himself and repeatedly bangs his head on a cupboard and hits himself with a light.
• In a Quidditch game a ‘rogue bludger’ chases Harry all over the place and causes him to fall to the ground  breaking his arm.
• Snape and Lockhart, then Harry and Draco have magic wand fights causing serious injury to the victims.

Also very scary fantasy scenes and ghost characters like Headless Nick and Moaning Myrtle, casting of spells, transformation of characters and other scenes such as:

• A swarm of huge hairy spiders attack Harry and Ron.
• The final scene with Harry and the Basilisk is particularly scary. This monstrous snake with huge fangs chases Harry and continually tries to attack him.

Moral of the Story

Good wins over evil but you need to work together to beat it.