A Reel 20: HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

 

“Harry Potter must not go back to Hogwarts this year…”

 

This month marks the 20^th anniversary of HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS. 

 

Directed by Chris Columbus and the second film in the HARRY POTTER film franchise, and based on the second book in the series by J.K. Rowling, CHAMBER OF SECRETS followed Harry Potter and his friends in their second year at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, as they try to solve the mystery of a chamber that has been opened on school grounds, releasing a monster that petrifies students. 

 

Filming for CHAMBER OF SECRETS began only three days after the release of the first film, HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE in 2001. The returning cast included Daniel Radcliffe as Harry, along with Emma Watson and Rupert Grint as his best friends. Kenneth Branagh would join the cast as a new professor. Other returning cast members included Robbie Coltrane, Maggie Smith, Jason Isaacs, Alan Rickman, Julie Walters, and Tom Felon…among others. Richard Harris would reprise his role as Professor Dumbledore for the final time. John Williams would return to provide the score. 

 

Upon release, CHAMBER OF SECRETS would be a critical and commercial hit. It would finish as the second-highest grossing film of 2002, behind THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS. It would be nominated for several awards, including the BAFTA Award for Best Production Design, Sound, and Visual Effects. 

 

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Twenty years after release, CHAMBER OF SECRETS is often regarded as one of the lower-tier entries into the franchise, with its long running time (161 minutes, longest in the series), and dated visual effects (some early CGI was cartoonishly bad). But with its darker atmosphere and eerie sequences involving giant spiders and a diary that talks back…it set a tone for what was to come in the movies ahead. Long-term, it has that back-to-school vibe going on, along with holiday elements (Halloween and Christmas), which makes it perfect fall and holiday viewing. It also introduced elements that would become iconic in HARRY POTTER lore, including a flying car, the Whomping Willow, the Sword of Gryffindor, Dobby the elf, Fawkes the phoenix, and other hints and places that would pay off years later. As the film that would be the last of Harry and his friends as true children, it would be the bridge that would send them into the more serious world of adulthood and into darker days…

 

“Funny, the damage a silly little book can do…”