By Morgan P Salvo
The previews for Woman in Black come from the green tinted night-camera variety, showing “candid” audiences’ reactions of fright. This is the same technique employed by the Paranormal Activity franchise to sell tickets. To me it’s the equivalent of restaurants that showcase faded pictures of their food in the window: never a good sign. It’s a shame the marketing research team resorted to this kind of advertising because in actuality this is an old school Victorian gothic ghost story that qualifies for decent requisite horror and definitely could’ve been a lot worse.
This atmospheric retro chiller, set in an isolated Yorkshire village, is a production of England's revived Hammer label and features a post-Harry Potter Daniel Radcliffe in his first grown up role. Screenwriter Jane Goldman has adapted Susan Hill's 1983 novel (which spawned a radio series, TV movie and long-running West End stage play). I feel the highly unoriginal title needs some sprucing up but then again in context with this movie it suffices.
The long and short of the plot is that Arthur Kipps (Radcliffe), is a recently widowed lawyer sent to a remote village to put a deceased eccentric's affairs in order. Kipps discovers that his late client's house is haunted by the spirit of a woman and that no one is safe (especially children) from her terrible wrath. His initial arrival in the township is greeted by weird stares, people peering through windows and a general stand offish vibe from the villagers who are obviously hiding a big dark secret. This creates a nice sinister, mysterious and foreboding atmosphere. The only person who's friendly is Samuel Daily (Ciarán Hinds), a wealthy skeptic whose wife (Janet McTeer) has gone mad after losing their young son. You figure Daily is either going to be a big help, turn evil or croak by the end of the movie. Don’t worry; I won’t spoil it for you.
Director James Watkins (Eden Lake/ The Descent 2) holds a steady eerie feel to this gothic entry with beautiful shots engulfed in a strange string soundtrack, but veers way too much into big loud scares that are accentuated by what sounds like someone whapping a kettle drum with a metallic gavel. In a very simplistic straightforward style we are treated to a variety of overdone genre clichés, some effective and some not. Keeping you on the creepy edge of your seat, Woman In Black relies on eeriness, not gore.With an Edgar Allen Poe feel, we get foggy London, dark bogs and mucky marshes, and creepy wind up dolls and toys. But the jump scares and jolts go over the required limit especially in the movie’s midsection. Watkins is more innovative in building suspense in the flick’s quieter moments, allowing sometimes only quick glimpses of what could be lurking in the corner. This effect works better then the full on big white scary face that zooms at the screen looking like it was yanked right out of The Grudge. But when we spot the ghostly woman clad in black skulking about in the dilapidated garden, it looks more like Black Sabbath’s first album cover.
It’s no secret that I generally hate haunted house movies, but I’ve decided that if a house is going to be haunted it should at least be creepy, like this one. I think we’re all tired of these new modern houses where nocturnal entities terrorize suburbia.Luscious and corny with a very hokey ending, this flick resolves into a little too easy of a solution. WIB needs more heaped on chills and thrills, like Sam Raimi’s manic Drag Me to Hell. It seems the filmmakers believed in keeping the movie true in spirit to horror movie predecessors like Roger Corman’s Grade-B The Terror (with Boris Karloff and Jack Nicholson).
Reminiscent of yesteryear, Woman in Black is a tasteful, old-school fright-fest, emphasizing suspense and ominous foreboding and, despite the bland name and misleading previews, delivers an adequate experience.
The Woman in Black
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Janet McTeer, Ciarán Hinds
Directed by James Watkins
Rated PG-13
2 ½ stars
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