Daniel Radcliffe on The Woman in Black

In The Woman in Black, Daniel Radcliffe portrays a young lawyer who travels to a remote village, where he discovers a vengeful ghost terrorizing the locals. (Alliance Films)

Though known around the globe as Harry Potter, British actor Daniel Radcliffe is moving beyond his heroic teen wizard role in his latest film, the Victorian-era thriller The Woman in Black.

Radcliffe was in Toronto on Thursday for an advanced screening of the horror tale.

The 22-year-old actor has already branched out with noted West End and Broadway turns in Equus and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, as well as a recent stint hosting Saturday Night Live in New York. Still, The Woman in Black marks his first movie since the end of the blockbuster Harry Potter series.

That a horror film would be his first post-Potter project was a surprise to Radcliffe himself.

"For somebody who doesn't believe in any of this ghosts, magic, any of that kind of stuff I do seem to be getting involved with a lot of supernatural projects," he told CBC News in Toronto Thursday afternoon.

What convinced him, however, was the film's director, James Watkins.

"We shared a vision of this being not just a film in terms of scares, but also a fil! m about loss and family and really what happens to us if we fail to move on from a loss. It was nice because it was a character-driven horror film."

The film's production schedule also proved perfectly timed, since shooting was set for the break between Radcliffe ending Potter and getting started in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

In the bleak ghost story, Radcliffe portrays a widower, young father and lawyer dispatched to a remote English village to conclude the affairs of a recently deceased eccentric. He discovers, however, that his late client's home is haunted by a vengeful ghost.

Though Radcliffe said the choice of his next few films is "less strategic than people think it is," he is adamant about his desire to tackle roles that push him as an actor, so that he continues to grow.

"The overriding thing that you learn from watching all the [actors] around you is just how the best among them never feel that they're complete as an actor, never feel they should stop learning and, always, are trying to get better. That's very inspirational when you see it in Gary [Oldman] or Alan Rickman or David Thewlis or someone like that," he said, citing several of his elder Potter co-stars.

The Woman in Black opens in theatres on Feb. 3.