Let's face it, the real reason so many people are curious about the new horror movie The Woman in Black is because they want to know whether the film's star Daniel Radcliffe is going to become the next Harrison Ford or the next Mark Hamill. In case you've somehow managed to avoid both bookstores and multiplexes since 2001, the 22-year-old British actor has spent the past ten years of his life playing boy wizard Harry Potter in the blockbuster film franchise based on J.K. Rowling's gazillion-selling book series. And while he's had other roles in between Potter installments (he appeared in the 2007 Australian drama December Boys, lampooned himself on Extras and played two well-received runs on Broadway), The Woman in Black is being watched extra closely as it's his first solo starring vehicle since the eighth and final film hit theaters last summer. So what's the verdict on the future of young Master Radcliffe?

Although he made his first scary movie in 2005, writer/director Ti West didn't register on the radars of most horror fans until his retro-'80s shocker The House of the Devil premiered in 2009. Although it wasn't a Paranormal Activity-style box office smash, Devil quickly gained a strong cult following and made the 31-year-old filmmaker a person of interest in genre circles. On Friday, West's new film The Innkeepers -- a small-scale ghost story set in an old (and possibly haunted) hotel -- arrives in theaters after premiering on VOD last month. TWoP spoke with West during the New York leg of his nationwide press tour about stealing content, the ridiculousness of ghost hunting TV shows and his theory about Gus Van Sant's controversial Psycho remake.

As I said the last time I reviewed one of these Twilight "films", writing a proper review is utterly pointless because the fans of these books are going to go see it, no matter how hard any critic out there may try and dissuade them. But while I really despised the majority of Eclipse, I've been desperately in need of a good laugh and there is nothing more preposterous than the fourth installment in this series. The Breaking Dawn book was so insanely bizarre that I almost couldn't wait to see this dreck in living color. And... it was everything I could have hoped for and worse. And don't worry, Twiharders, Bill Condon does absolutely nothing to elevate the quality of this material, so you don't need to imagine that an acclaimed director was somehow able to change the ridiculous storytelling of Stephenie Meyer and make it passable for normal human consumption. It is still the terrible mess that she created, now with bonus terrible acting. And it's stretched out for two movies. They want all your money. After seeing where they ended this one, and watching how padded out this was, there is absolutely no reason this couldn't be a single film. This isn't The Hobbit, it's Twilight. Even worse, this first installment didn't even end where it logically should have based on the novel -- instead, it kept going for what seemed like an eternity. Still, I did laugh... a lot. So here's a look at the most ridiculous things about the film. [If you are a spoilerphobe and actually care about Twilight, stop reading now.]

Check out an extended clip from one of the year's best movies before it arrives on DVD tomorrow.

Most sequels devote themselves to moving the story of a franchise forward; the Paranormal Activity movies seem to be going in reverse. As fans of the hit horror series may recall, the first film took place in 2007 and involved the haunting of a seemingly ordinary San Diego home shared by yuppie couple Katie (Katie Featherstone) and Micah (Micah Sloat). Paranormal Activity 2 turned the clock back roughly a year and introduced us to Katie's younger sister Kristi (Sprague Grayden), whose own house and family were bedeviled by the same poltergeist. And now Paranormal Activity 3 time travels two decades into the past back to 1988 when Katie and Kristi were little girls (played by Chloe Csengery and Jessica Tyler Brown respectively) living in a picturesque Carlsbad, California split-level with their mother Julie (Lauren Bittner), her new boyfriend Dennis (Christopher Nicholas Smith) and -- you guessed it! -- the same violence-prone ghost. At the series' current rate of regression, by the time we get to Paranormal Activity 5, we'll be back in the silent film era and the characters will have to hand-crank their personal cameras Thomas Edison-style.

One of the things that distinguishes Guillermo Del Toro's horror films from the rest of the genre rabble are their formal elegance, to say nothing of their narrative discipline. Where a movie like the recent Fright Night remake demonstrates a short-term memory for scares -- cramming multiple jolts into every scene with little regard to the overall arc of the film -- Del Toro takes his time establishing a compelling mood, intriguing characters and a distinctive setting before getting down to the spooky stuff. The setting plays a particularly important role in Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, a haunted house chiller that takes place almost entirely within the walls of a 19th century manor. From the minute we lay eyes on the place, we know there's something not quite right about it -- beautiful Gothic architecture and to-die-for closet space notwithstanding -- and part of the fun of the movie lies in watching the house's hidden horrors slowly bubble to the surface. The difference between Fright Night and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark is like the difference between a novice poker player and an experienced card shark; the former tips his hand too quickly, while the latter bides his time before revealing what he's holding.

In the Guillermo Del Toro-produced horror film Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, an architect moves his girlfriend and young daughter into Blackwood Manor, a centuries-old mansion that he's trying to restore to its former glory. In the course of their stay, the trio is shocked to discover that this house is -- gasp -- haunted! That won't come as a shock to any of us in the audience; the minute we lay eyes on the manor's dimly lit rooms, Gothic decor and dark, dank basement, we know that there are some serious supernatural shenanigans going on in there. Chalk that up to years of observing other cinematic haunted houses and learning to recognize the tell-tale signs of ghosts, monsters and other creatures that go bump in the night. Now we're putting that knowledge to the test, imagining the way real estate agents might try to sell novice buyers on some famous poltergeist-ridden properties and the things we'd tell them to be wary of.

The late '70s and early '80s were a boom time for cheap horror movies as the big Hollywood studios and independent producers churned out dozens upon dozens of low-budget pictures that featured attractive casts of teenagers getting summarily slaughtered by serial killers, zombies, vampires and other assorted monsters. Today, those titles have provided the industry with plenty of remake fodder to fill up multiplexes on otherwise slow weekends. In the past few years, we've been treated to remakes of everything from Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street to Prom Night and My Bloody Valentine. (Anyone wanna bet how long it'll be until we're buying tickets to new versions of Chopping Mall, April Fool's Day and Night of the Creeps?) So it was only a matter of time until someone got around to Fright Night, Tom Holland's fondly remembered 1985 tale of a suburban teen (William Ragsdale) who discovers that the guy next door (Chris Sarandon) is a literal bloodsucker.

Earlier this summer, J.J. Abrams' alien invasion movie/small town coming-of-age story/extended Steven Spielberg homage Super 8 opened to generally positive reviews (though not here) and grossed $125 million at the box office. Today, the terrific U.K.-made alien invasion movie Attack the Block arrives in Stateside theaters after a successful run in its native land in May. Sadly, it will probably not earn $125 million at the box office, but a respectable domestic number followed by a long, lucrative afterlife on DVD seems likely. And even if Block doesn't match Super 8's box-office intake, writer/director Joe Cornish can content himself with the knowledge that he's made the better movie. Here's why:

Steven Spielberg's name is featured so prominently in all the trailers and poster for Super 8, you'd be forgiven for thinking that The Bearded One himself directed this summer season's latest would-be blockbuster. That feeling only intensifies in the movie's first few moments, which sets us down in a small Spielbergian town circa 1979 to the strains of a dreamy John Williams-ish score (actually composed by the always-stellar Michael Giacchino). But then the first of many lens flares strikes the camera and you remember, "Oh right! This is a J.J. Abrams joint!"