January and February are habitually known as the dumping ground for studios to test out their films that they have less faith in than their major tentpole or franchise films. That certainly doesn’t seem to be the case this weekend, as 2 very different genre film topping the box office.

First, a second generation sci-fi writer, Max Landis’ Chronicle about 3 friends that develop superpowers and figure out which side, good or evil, they want to fight for. The film, which got an 85% on RottenTomatoes, managed to pull in an estimated $22 million this weekend, which is nearly double what the production budget of the film was. Easily, a success.

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With the plethora of horror genre infused films this year, movie goers are in for an explosion of multifaceted cinema experiences.

From a variety of novel adaptations mixed with dark fantasy elements to entities in the form of haunted objects and locations, there will be much to choose from for the gore connoisseur.

January 13, 2012 – Don’t Go in the Woods

Don’t go in the Woods (Distributed by Tribeca Film) is yet another youth thriller centering on a band. Heading out to a cabin for rest, recreation, and creative inspiration, this group receives more than they bargain for.

January 20, 2012 – Underworld: Awakening

(Distributed by Sony Screen Gems) is the fourth in the franchise in a world of vampires and lycans’ existence has been discovered by man-kind. These forces must ban together to fight a common enemy in the biggest struggle for both species.

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If you’ve been the star of one of the most successful film franchises of all time and now that’s over, you might want to consider trying to go in a different direction with your career. If you’re Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe, that’s kinda what you’ve done with your upcoming film The Woman In Black.

In the film Radcliffe plays a lawyer who travels to a remote English village and discovers that the ghost of a scorned woman is terrorizing the locals. The horror thriller is a remake of a 1989 TV movie which was adapted from a play which, itself, was adapted from a novel by Susan Hill. You follow all that? Good.

We’v got a new trailer for the film to share with you today. In it, Radcliffe does his best to overcome the notion that he should just pull out his wand and blast the ghost with his magical powers. Does he succeed? You be the judge.

Check out the trailer after the jump. The Woman In Black is set to hit theaters on February 3rd of 2012.

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The story picks up where Part I left off. If you really need to know, you can always rewatch the last movie (Heaven help you), but I’m a casual fan and had no trouble jumping right in. Harry and co are holed up in the Weasley family safehouse with Mr. Ollivander (John Hurt) and one of the goblin bankers of the Wizard World’s enormous vault Gringott’s. The group needs him to break into the vault and destroy a chalice that holds part of the soul of Lord Voldemort (or “Horcruxes” for the Potter fans)—and break in (and escape) they do. I’m pretty sure the entire sequence is the most accurate movie representation of the US’s financial collapse we’re likely to see.

From there they travel back to the wizarding school Hogwarts to destroy another Horcrux and oust Snape as the acting Headmaster. At the same time, Voldemort’s army (why was the wizarding world so scared of him before? It appears the whole of them were his allies?) prepares to march on Hogwarts while Harry scrambles to finish up the tasks that will ensure Voldemort’s total destruction. I won’t dwell on recapping because 1) it’s not particularly necessary and 2) anyone reading this will likely already know, so we may as well just get right into the review.

For all the complaints that were and could be (justifiably) leveled against Part I, Part II is a rather wonderful return to form, evoking the grandeur of the previous Potter films but furthering it with higher stakes and a more serious tone. Many have lauded the later Potter films for their “darkness,” and while I didn’t quite agree with them then, the credit is now well deserved.

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As sad as it may be the inevitable is about to happen. The final Harry Potter film adaptation of the phenomenally successful book series is set to arrive this week.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 will mark the end of the saga and bring to a close one of the most successful film franchises in history. To commemorate that milestone, some talented folks have put together a little restrospective of the series and its characters.

In this video you get to see the progression of Harry, Hermione, Ron and the rest of the characters as they go through all the films. It’s really pretty interesting to see how things have changed over the years.

Check out the video after the break. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 Opens on Friday.

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Harry Potter fans, listen up! Or, at the very least read carefully as we’re doing a giveaway to celebrate Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 coming to On Demand, download and on Blu-ray today. And believe us, you want to win.

Just be ready on our Twitter feed sometime this afternoon and able to correctly answer a Harry Potter trivia question. Two lucky winners who answer the trivia questions correctly will get all this amazing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 swag:

• iTunes download of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1
• T-shirt (adult size)
• Keychain
• iPhone sticker skin

Amazing, right? So be ready and glued to our Twitter feed for your chance to win. Also, be sure to check out Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 available today via On Demand, download at iTunes and other places and on Blu-ray.

Plus, don’t forget the official Harry Potter podcast, available via iTunes right here.

Also, in case you’ve forgotten (but how could you?) here’s the official synopsis of the film and a clip to get you even more excited. After the break, of course.

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Often, it’s difficult for actors to make the transition from one role they are hugely famous for into other roles. That’s especially true if you’ve grown up playing one character. People often have a hard time thinking of you as anything else.

Case in point is actor Daniel Radcliffe who will, almost certainly, always be thought of by many as Harry Potter. However, that hasn’t stopped the actor from trying to branch out and leave Harry behind. One of those attempts is a new project from Momentum Films and Exclusive Media Group’s Hammer called The Woman in Black.

In the film, Radcliffe plays a young lawyer who travels to a mysterious house to settle the affairs of the spooky mansion’s owner. Of course, we’ve got a teaser from the film to show you right now.

Click through to check out the teaser. The Woman In Black is currently shooting for a February, 2012 release.

So, what do we think? Can Radcliffe move on to other, more mature roles or will he always be Harry Potter to you? Sound off in the comments!

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The final flick from the long-running Harry Potter series hits theaters this summer and the official Facebook page is abuzz following the release of the official movie poster. The 7th movie in the ‘Potter’ series wraps up the events contained in the final novel by J.K. Rowling entitled Deathly Hallows, having been split into two parts to better do justice to the dark and dangerous tale.

The end begins as Harry, Ron, and Hermione go back to Hogwarts to find and destroy Voldemort’s final horcruxes, but when Voldemort finds out about their mission, the biggest battle begins and life as they know it will never be the same again.

Directed by British filmmaker David Yates (Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince) and with a script written by Steve Kloves (Sorcerer’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire, Half-Blood Prince), Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 arrives in theaters everywhere on July 15th.

Be sure to hit the jump for the full-sized official movie poster!

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While the very first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is quickly climbing the ranks and close to making $1 Billion worldwide since it’s release in November, fans everywhere are looking forward to the final culmination in Part Two hitting theaters this July.

In it, we are expected to get (without spoiling anything) a pretty amazing wizard battle between Harry and his noseless nemesis, Voldemort.

In this new featurette, we get a little bit of that face-off, but plenty more footage and even some candid moments with Radcliffe, Grint, and Watson give some insights on what we can expect in this final (and only 3D) installment.

Check out the footage after the jump and see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in theaters on July 15th.

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After some time off for the Thanksgiving holiday to consume copious amounts of food and drink, Chris and Matt are back with an all-new episode of The Flickcast. On this week’s show the boys discuss all sorts of new topics and touch on a few recurring ones as well.

Some of those topics include the new Harry Potter film, the tragic passing of both Leslie Nielsen and Irvin Kershner, James Franco and Anne Hathaway hosting the next Oscars, The Hobbit not in 3D, the future on the Internet and services like Netflix and a whole lot more. They also made some great picks this week including Matt’s pick of the animated series Young Justice and Chris’ pick of the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World Blu-ray.

Want more Chris and Matt? Be sure to check out this week’s episode of This Week in Walking Dead, which stars Matt, guest stars Chris, and series star Andy Rothenberg even stops by.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

Sometimes, at least in the minds of fans, the line between a character and the actor who portrays that character can become blurred. Often you will see fans referring to their favorite actor as the character from the movie they love.

Sadly, that affliction doesn’t seem completely confined to the fans. Apparently, some actors have that problem as well. Or, in the case of one Daniel Radcliffe and his relationship with a certain young wizard, the situation is slightly different.

Having some trouble understanding what I mean? Well, perhaps this video from Funny or Die will help you out? In it, Daniel Radcliffe explains that he isn’t, in fact, the actor portraying Harry Potter. Instead, he’s Harry Potter playing the role of actor Daniel Radcliffe.

Still confused? Well, click through and perhaps all will be illuminated.

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We’re only a few days away from the big premiere of the next Harry Potter film and leave it to the Internet, specifically to the various torrent sites, to spoil it for Warner Brothers. Thirty-six minutes of the new film have leaked onto the ‘net and studio execs, who I’m sure are concerned, must be high-fiving their decision to only provide a small portion of the film to the press to screen. The footage is watermarked and obviously from a DVD screener, generally sent to the press prior to a film’s official release, however Warner Bros is not confirming this at this time.

For those with even a cursory knowledge of how torrent sites work, they’re probably quite busy getting a solid look at the film before the world-wide release later this week. According to TorrentFreak.com, this is not the first time ‘Deathly Hallows’ has made a splash on the torrent scene. In 2007 a scan of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book was posted online before it hit the book stores, and was then quickly transcribed by fans. Someone had managed to get their hands on the American edition of the book and had photographed each page of the book and uploaded it to BitTorrent.

Flash forward a few years and dozens of torrent sites are  offering up the lengthy “preview” of the film. No surprise really, considering TorrentFreak reports that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince scored a spot on its “most pirated movies” list with nearly 8 million downloads last year. Industry watchers are speculating whether the leak will have any affect on ticket sales, which seems remote unless the initial half hour of the film is disastrously bad. Instead, it may have the opposite effect, whetting movie-goers appetite for the full movie.

Wired.com is already reporting an official statement by the studio, who is vowing to find and prosecute those responsible.

“Last night a portion of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 was stolen and illegally posted on the internet. This constitutes a serious breach of copyright violation and theft of Warner Bros. property. We are working actively to restrict and/or remove copies that may be available. Also, we are vigorously investigating this matter and will prosecute those involved to the full extent of the law.”

What do you think? Will a little more than a half hour of the film have any bearing on opening night box office sales? Let us know your opinion in the comments section.