The Woman In Black

Synopsis: Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) is a young London solicitor instructed by his firm to sort out the affairs of a deceased estate in an isolated seaside village. He has been chronically depressed following the death of his wife in childbirth three years earlier and is warned that this is his last chance to do a good job. At the creepy old house called Eel Marsh, Arthur is confronted by a mess of papers, a sinister story of a suicide, a drowned child, and the appearance of a ghostly figure of a woman in black. Local sceptic Daily (Ciaran Hinds) is Arthur’s only ally as he battles the hostile locals and a very vengeful ghost.

The successful novel upon which this film is based was written in 1982. Production company Hammer, renowned for some fairly dubious horror films over the years has taken it and delivered an old-fashioned ghost story that really has the power to chill one's bones. (Well, it scared me at least). All the required elements of the genre are here in abundance: three young girls leap to their deaths in the opening scene, bidden by some mysterious unseen presence; the village is isolated and mist-shrouded,  its denizens suspicious and superstitious; the old house abuts a graveyard and is on a piece of land that is regularly cut off by the daily tides; the long dead child’s body was never recovered from black slimy marshland and after Kipps’ sighting of the woman in black more child deaths occur – and all that’s before I even get into describing the house itself.

The palpable foreboding emanating from this gothic mansion is there from first glimpse as the heavy front door creaks open. If the first interior view of the house reminds one of Hogwarts, this benign association is soon dispelled, as we experience long claustrophobic tracking shots along dark corridors and into previously locked rooms, where terrifying things take place –wind-up toys spring into action; faces and hands suddenly appear at windows; muddy footprints appear from nowhere… you get the idea. The occasional appearance of the eponymous woman is handled deftly – never overdone, sometimes barely a suggestion, but accompanied by dramatic bursts of music it is enough to jolt an audience out of their seats. The sense of menace is ever-present, the camera’s point of view often hinting at some lurking evil and often only in one’s peripheral vision.

So how does young Daniel Radcliffe measure up, post-Harry Potter? I liked his performance, even though his character is a little subdued. His portrayal of grief and oppressive bereavement is well captured as is his constant edginess. He doesn’t get the opportunity to show a huge range of emotions but something about his demeanour really suits the setting and I saw him as Kipps, not as Potter, a good sign. Hinds is excellent as the sole voice of rationality in the village and Janet McTeer as his half-mad wife, Elizabeth, is a sympathetic character.

It is so refreshing to see a horror film that truly frightens without the nastiness factor of the slasher movie. Plot-wise the story holds up well, has plenty of excellent twists and turns, and the final chilling climax is truly memorable. Hooray for good old-fashioned Hammer horror!

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