Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a 2002 fantasy film directed by Chris Columbus from a screenplay by Steve Kloves.

The film stars Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, with Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger respectively.

Spending the summer with the Dursleys, Harry Potter meets Dobby, a house-elf who warns him not to return to Hogwarts or danger will strike.

In Diagon Alley, Harry, the Weasleys and Hermione Granger notice a book-signing by Gilderoy Lockhart, Hogwarts' new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.

After being blocked from entering Platform Nine and Three-Quarters at King's Cross railway station, Harry and Ron take the car to Hogwarts.

In detention, Harry hears a strange voice and later finds caretaker Argus Filch's cat, Mrs Norris, petrified beside a message written in blood: "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened, enemies of the heir...

One of Hogwarts' founders, Salazar Slytherin, supposedly constructed a secret Chamber containing a monster that only his heir can control, capable of purging the school of Muggle-born students.

To solve this mystery, Harry, Ron, and Hermione plan to question Malfoy, using polyjuice potion, which they brew in a bathroom haunted by Moaning Myrtle, a ghost.

Dobby visits him in the infirmary and reveals that he closed the barrier to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters and made the Bludger chase Harry to force him to leave the school.

Harry finds an enchanted diary owned by former student Tom Marvolo Riddle, who opened the Chamber and blamed Rubeus Hagrid, leading to his expulsion.

A book page in Hermione's hand identifies the monster as a basilisk, a giant serpent that kills people who make direct eye contact with it; the petrified victims only saw it indirectly.

After Harry expresses his loyalty to Dumbledore, the latter's pet phoenix Fawkes arrives with the Sorting Hat, causing Riddle to summon the basilisk.

Fawkes's tears heal Harry, who returns to Hogwarts with his friends and a baffled Lockhart, earning Dumbledore's praise and Hagrid's release.

[18][19] Matthew Lewis, Devon Murray and Alfred Enoch play Neville Longbottom, Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas, respectively, three Gryffindor students in Harry's year.

[17][20] David Bradley portrays Argus Filch, Hogwarts' caretaker,[21] and Sean Biggerstaff as Oliver Wood, the Keeper of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

Emily Dale appears as Katie Bell, Rochelle Douglas as Alicia Spinnet, and Danielle Tabor as Angelina Johnson; Gryffindor girls.

[34] Before Coulson was cast as Tom Riddle, James McAvoy and Eddie Redmayne – who later played Newt Scamander in the Fantastic Beasts films – auditioned for the role.

One of the original concepts was for him to wear a pinstripe suit, but was changed to furs and a snake head cane in order to remark his aristocrat quality and to reflect a "sense of the old.

[54] Roger Pratt was brought on as director of photography for Chamber of Secrets, in order to give the film "a darker and edgier feel" than its predecessor, which reflected "the growth of the characters and the story.

[57][58] Due to the events that take place in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the film's sound effects were much more expansive than in the previous instalment.

Special effects supervisor John Richardson and his team created mechanically operated branches to hit the flying car.

[67] A 1:3 scale set was built on stage at Shepperton Studios, which featured the fully-sized top third of the tree with a forced perspective to appear a height of over 100 feet (30 m) high.

Composing the film proved to be a difficult task, as Williams had just completed scoring Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and Minority Report when work was to begin on Catch Me If You Can.

[70] Footage for the film began appearing online in the summer of 2002, with a teaser trailer debuting in cinemas with the release of Scooby-Doo that June.

[71] A video game based on the film was released in early November 2002 by Electronic Arts for several consoles, including GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox.

[88] In Malaysia, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets made a total of $474,000, breaking Eraser's record for having the country's biggest opening for any Warner Bros. film.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets would then gross over $1.15 million in the Philippines, ranking as an industry high in the country only 5% bigger than Godzilla.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Though perhaps more enchanting for younger audiences, Chamber of Secrets is nevertheless both darker and livelier than its predecessor, expanding and improving upon the first film's universe.

[99] Variety said the film was excessively long, but praised it for being darker and more dramatic, saying that its confidence and intermittent flair to give it a life of its own apart from the books was something The Philosopher's Stone never achieved.

[102] Kenneth Turan from the Los Angeles Times called the film a cliché which is "deja vu all over again, it's likely that whatever you thought of the first production – pro or con – you'll likely think of this one".