| Vidaview: Movie Review - Magic Spells Will Not Stop “The Woman in Black” |
| Written by Alejandro A. Riera |
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They were, at least to me when I first encountered them in my youth, far scarier and sinister than any horror film that came before them. They relied simultaneously on shocking acts of violence, atmosphere and mood to scare the bejesus out of you. They were also quite formulaic: Dracula would always come back from the dead no matter how many times a stake would be driven through his heart. The Hammer films went out of style in the 70s as a new wave of filmmakers such as Wes Caven and Tobe Hooper and studios like Roger Corman’s New World redefined the rules of the genre with titles like “The Hills Have Eyes,” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Piranha.” But, you can’t keep a good monster down and, like its many incarnations of Dracula, Hammer Films came back from the dead two years ago with “Let Me In,” the American-shot remake of the brilliant Swedish vampire film “Let the Right One In.” Their latest offering, “The Woman in Black,” is a turn-of-the-century set ghost story that relies on sound, lighting and set design instead of gore to send a chill down your spine (although there IS some blood spilled…otherwise this would not be a proper Hammer film). Although not as psychologically complex as Juan Antonio Bayona’s “The Orphanage” (the Spanish have lately shown Hollywood a thing or two about what makes a scary movie truly scary), “The Woman in Black” contains all the classic elements of a gothic horror tale: a haunted house in the middle of nowhere, townsfolk who treat any newcomer with hostility, a dark history and plenty of deaths tied to that history.
Kipps spends an evening in Eel March and soon begins to see a woman dressed in black, begins to hear voices and other assorted noises. Oh, and did I mention that the house comes equipped with its own family cemetery and that the evening tide cuts the house off from the rest of the village? The house comes with its own furnishings: dozens of creepy, weird dolls and toys. Kipps soon realizes that a ghost is not only haunting the premises but is also responsible for the nasty deaths of the village’s children, including those three little girls at the beginning. Watkins and Goldman use every tool available in the ghost story tool kit to create that familiar sense of dread, of unease, that make for a good haunted house story: rocking chairs moving on their own, figures at the edge of the frame, candles that are methodically snuffed out by an invisible hand, dolls’ eyes lit eerily, a woman possessed by a child’s spirit, and a zoetrope. What happens outside the house is as unnerving as what happens inside: Mrs. Daily’s madness, the death by fire of a child locked in a basement room by her parents to protect her from the evil that has befallen the village, etc. At first, it takes time to believe that Radcliffe could play the role of a young father overpowered by grief. The role requires him to convey a sense of confusion, loss, who actually believes he can see the ghost of his wife. In other words, the perfect victim for a haunting. Radcliffe delivers all these qualities once his character arrives to the village. He is beautifully supported by Hinds and by Janet McTeer as Mrs. Daily, both representing the extremes of the traditional ghost story: the rational versus the irrational. “The Woman in Black” is, I hope, a sign of things to come from Hammer. May their future productions be as gothic and creepy as this new effort and as bloody and sexy as their predecessors. Alejandro A. Riera writes about culture (Latino and non-Latino alike) in his blog culturebodega
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  written by Jackelona, February 03, 2012
I'm Glad I read your review on this movie because I am planning on seeing it tonight! I'm not a huge fan of Scary movies, well gory ones anyway. I like suspense, psychological thrillers, ghost story type of scary movies. I loved 'The Orphanage' I thought it was a Great film :-) I'm even more Excited Now to see The Woman in Black tonight! Thanks
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February 3, 2012, 8:23am CST (Magic Spells Will Not Stop “The Woman in Black”) Long before Jigsaw, Freddy Krueger or even Jason, there was Dracula, Frankenstein and The Mummy…but not as Universal Pictures envisioned them in the 1930s and 40s. I am referring to the far bloodier, gaudier, and sexier movies Hammer Films produced in the 1950s, 60s and early 70s starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing and which became fodder for late night TV.
Adapted by Jane Goldman (“X-Men: First Class,” “Kick-Ass’) from a novel by Susan Hill and directed by James Watkins, the film opens, creepily enough, with the suicide of three young girls. We are then introduced to Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe in his first post-Harry Potter movie role) who still mourns his wife four years after she died while giving birth to their son. His job performance at a law firm has left a lot to be desired, but his boss gives him one last chance: to settle the affairs of the recently deceased owner of Eel March House outside the village of Crythin Gifford (really, don’t these names sound like something out of “Harry Potter”?). The village residents, though, would much rather he took the next train back to London. Only one, Samuel Daily (Ciaran Hinds), a local landowner whose wife went mad after the death by drowning of their only son Nicholas, extends a friendly hand.
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