Lawyer, Arthur Kipps, is haunted by the loss of his wife and
so, to try and bring his mind back to his work and saving his job, he embarks
on a journey to a distant village to sort out the paperwork of a woman recently
deceased. But when he gets there, he is haunted by something else: the ghost of
a dead woman dressed all in black. To make matters worse, as soon as he enters
the village, a series of deaths of young children begin occurring and the woman
in black seems to be at the heart of it.
Wooo spooky stuff. Check it out
people, I went to the cinemas and saw a horror movie! Swelling with pride I am
right now. This was a good old-fashioned hammer horror movie where the thrills
and frights are done through a hauntingly sinister soundtrack, whispers, distant
wails, freaky dolls and toys, and nothing but glimpses. Even though you know
that something is going to suddenly jump out at you, you cannot prepare
yourself for it and you start nonetheless. I got frightened during this film
definitely, I got startled and my heart is still beating rather hard. It was
great.
Lawyer, Arthur Kipps, is haunted by the loss of his wife and so, to try
and bring his mind back to his work and saving his job, he embarks on a journey
to a distant village to sort out the paperwork of a woman recently deceased.
But when he gets there, he is haunted by something else: the ghost of a dead
woman dressed all in black. To make matters worse, as soon as he enters the
village, a series of deaths of young children begin occurring and the woman in
black seems to be at the heart of it.
Based on the novel of the same name by
Susan Hill, The Woman In Black is a
good horror movie namely for the fact that it goes back to the days where
horror movies were classy and elegant and there wasn’t blood everywhere and
people with knives on their gloves, or chainsaws, or hockey masks, or any of
that freaky slasher stuff that makes you want to toss your cookies. This was
just glimpses in the window, inanimate objects moving on their own, whispers
and distant wailings of despair, and then the occasional sudden burst forth
from the Woman herself, lots of screaming when that happens.
The soundtrack was
spot on in creating the atmosphere of suspense and then sudden visions,
sometimes you weren’t even aware the ghost was there until the music sort of
drew your attention to her. And there is just as much silence broken by wails
and whispers as there were crescendos and sustained, haunting notes. It was
excellent.
Daniel Radcliffe is our star, Arthur Kipps, and he did the part well
enough. I don’t think there’s a lot you can say about the performances of the
cast in horror movies because they’re all sort of the same, really. And because
we spend so much time, in fact practically the entire duration of the film with
this one character, you do start to just stare blankly. So what can I say about
Daniel’s performance? Well, he delivered a good one that was obviously haunted
(not an easy emotion to convey), suspicious, slightly dramatic, and
inquisitive. Really, at the end of the day, there are only three acting
challenges presented in a horror movie: anticipatory/slightly frightened, really scared, and then deeply panting
with relief. When was the last Academy Award for Best Actor or Actress given to
the star of a horror film? I ask you.
Starring Sophie Stuckey, Roger Allam,
Ciaran Hinds, Shaun Dooley, Mary Stockley, and Liz White and filled with
suspense, disturbing visions, blood, death, freaky children’s toys, screaming,
and a twisted, but somehow happy ending, The
Woman in Black was a good old-fashioned elegant horror movie, the likes of
which they just don’t make anymore.
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