Unsettling as it is entertaining, The Woman in Black is a deliciously creepy old fashioned ghost story
The Woman In Black
A; Drama/Horroru00a0
Dir: James Watkinsu00a0
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe
Rating: ***1/2 (Out of 5)
Unsettling as it is entertaining, The Woman in Black is a deliciously creepy old fashioned ghost story, and the most enjoyable chiller since 2007's The Orphanage. The film, an adaptation of Susan Hill's 1983 book (which spawned a fantastic 1989 TV movie and a popular stage play) is a slickly crafted Gothic spookfest that fiddles with fear in a delightfully cinematic manner.
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What makes The Woman in Black work is its unpretentious, increasingly alarming and emotionally jangling tone. Director James Watkins refreshingly doesn't resort to gore for the scares or shock value - but the tension becomes almost unbearable as the film progresses and Watkins, his cinematographer Tim Maurice and composer Marco Beltrami keep the bloodcurling atmosphere going for the entirety of its 90 minutes. It helps that Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe headlines the film with a mature, understated performance - it's great to see him tackling such a diverse role.
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The story is fairly straightforwardu00a0-- Radcliffe plays Arthur Kipps, a young lawyer and a widower with a four-year-old son who is sent to a rotting mansion in the English countryside where the dead owner has left the estate a mess of paperwork. A sinister stench greets Kipps, there is no telephone or electricity; the townspeople seem to hide a secret and Kipps soon realizes that he is being watched from a distance by a ghostly figure in black.
Soon enough, the bump in the dark frights assume full control all the way up to the smashing thrill ride of an ending. If you've seen half a dozen horror movies, you'll already know where the scares are. The standard clich ufffds are a plenty - from the intimidating toys to the unexpected blasts from the music brass. Yet the jump scares are delivered exquisitely because director Watkins consistently finds new ways to sell them.
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But the bigger coup of The Woman in Black is the pleasing climax coupled with the ample backstory. Moreover, the film marks a great return for the legendary Hammer productions that brought us such seminal horror films as Dracula, The Curse of Frankenstein and The Mummy. The lighting and set design is gorgeous and constantly offers spine-chilling visual cues and shadows. There are startling noises in the fog, grimy hand prints on window panes, the mansion itself is adorned in strange decorations and is cut off from the land by a lake, but none of the supernatural overtures are the least bit cheesy. They're just enough to keep horror veterans entertained and newbies shifting at the edge of their seats.
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