The Spiderwick Chronicles

Forget Voldermort. Don't fret yourself over Narnia's White Witch. Worry not about Marisa Coulter in the Golden Compass.

No, the villain to keep you eyes peeled for is Mulgarath, a shape-shifting demon with an unhealthy streak of megalomonia.

In human form he is Nick Nolte (scary enough) but when he performs a diabolic transformation into an ogre then he's every teenager's worse nightmare.

(and that's not the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, The Right Honourable Ed Balls MP).

Mulgarath is one of the "faeries" discovered and annotated by Arthur Spiderwick (Strathairn), the late, great-great-uncle of the Grace children, twins Jared and Simon (both played by Brit Freddie Highmore) and sister Mallory (Bolger).

Decades after old Spiderwick disappeared, the kids together with their mother leave New York to live at the crumbling family pile.

It's not happy families. Jared resents the move and parting from his father. Mallory is the typical bossy big sister and mom isn't being totally honest about her marital situation.

So the last thing they want to discover are items mysteriously going astray and spooky sounds emanating from behind the plasterboard of the creepy old house.

Intrigued, Jared investigates and discovers the dusty tome Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You with a warning note not to remove it from the house.

Like the criminally underrated Lemony Snicket, this is premier league children's cinema with first-class performances (particularly from Britain's Freddie Highmore), a neat plot and excellent special effects serving the story and not obscuring it.

The disturbingly surreal parallel universe people by all manner of beasties - swooping Griffin, ethereal sprites and carnivorous toads - is beautifully realised.

But what sets apart Marc "Mean Girls" Waters' dizzying confection is it's willingness to treat its young audience as adults-in-waiting.

So difficult themes for youngster such as divorce and displacement are woven into the fabric of the tale along with the more traditional thrills and spills.

Stylish, thoughtful and inviting aren't normally words associated with family fare...but here they do just fine.

Tim Evans