The Woman In Black (2012)
Pre-amble: From one Potter kid to the next…This is Daniel Radcliffe’s first film since finishing the Harry Potter series. Good God, is this the best film he could land a feature part in? Small trivia note, the 1989 TV film version of The Woman in Black featured Adrian Rawlins in Radcliffe’s part, who played his father in the Harry Potter movies! How about that.
Plot: Early 1900s Britain, Harry (“Arthur Kipps”) is a failing lawyer who’s tasked to sort out papers for a large manor. When he gets to the remote area, he finds it’s haunted, death surrounds the town and the villagers know something but aren’t telling. One kindly old man drip-feeds him the plot, Ciarán Hinds (Caesar from ROME). So far so good.
The Horror:
It all falls apart when you get the sinking realisation that this film has nothing to offer. All it can muster is the same monotonous startling/shock!-horror that is truly the lowest of scares. Oh it’s crow, how startling, oh a music box starts playing, how startling. Specifically-placed mirrors in the shot, something moves! Over and over again for 90 minutes. Boo.
It all falls apart when you get the sinking realisation that this film has nothing to offer. All it can muster is the same monotonous startling/shock!-horror that is truly the lowest of scares. Oh it’s crow, how startling, oh a music box starts playing, how startling. Specifically-placed mirrors in the shot, something moves! Over and over again for 90 minutes. Boo.
Anything Else?
Tell you what though, Potter in this film has balls. He has no problem checking out an obviously malevolently-haunted house with absolutely no concern for his own safety. The film tries to add gravity as the targets of said Woman in Black are always children, and Potter’s kid is on his way to the haunted town and such a fate could await him. Horrible film. So little positives to say about it. It had the customary washed-out look, it never looked cheap, so that’s something positive.
Tell you what though, Potter in this film has balls. He has no problem checking out an obviously malevolently-haunted house with absolutely no concern for his own safety. The film tries to add gravity as the targets of said Woman in Black are always children, and Potter’s kid is on his way to the haunted town and such a fate could await him. Horrible film. So little positives to say about it. It had the customary washed-out look, it never looked cheap, so that’s something positive.
Overall : The script and the ‘scares’ were bankrupt. Hugely disappointing, fell short of average. Avoid.