Birthdays in the U.K. are a big deal for young boys: Just ask Harry Potter, or (in this case), ask Will Stanton, an American whose family is visiting England. On his fourteenth birthday, Will is told of his destiny as the last of the time-traveling warriors called the Old Ones who wield their ancient powers of The Light against those who follow The Dark.

According to those who know, the movie doesn’t follow the book that it’s based on (the second book of Susan Cooper’s, The Dark Is Rising Sequence), but I got some enjoyment from the innocence and soppiness of Will, his sister Gwen, his infatuation with the town’s pretty girl, and even Will’s stereotypical brothers. But the horror and fantasy parts of the film were as formulaic as the fact that Will is the seventh son of a seventh son; and Will’s ability to step through time is incidental to the story.