Based on the classic ghost story, The Woman In Black tells the tale of Arthur Kipps (Radcliffe), a lawyer who is forced to leave his young son and travel to a remote village to attend to the affairs of the recently deceased owner of Eel Marsh House.
I really cannot explain why I bought and watched The Woman in Black DVD. I have never been a huge fan of horror films as they tend to crawl into my head and play with my imagination for days and (especially) nights after (Yes I am aware that there are (probably) no such things as ghosts but I am also aware that the characters in films think the same thing and look what happens to them!) . This was described more as a ghost story than an all out horror film, however, and sometimes a little scary can be good. So I grabbed a copy of this DVD and a bag of popcorn and settled down (with the lights on naturally) to what I hoped would be a great film experience.
I did not find this film scary at all.
I don't know what went wrong. All the ingredients were there: spooky isolated house, fog, remote village, fog, scared villagers, fog, scary moving toys, unexplained deaths and fog. Somehow, though none of this managed to pull together into a frightening film. With my imagination, it doesn't take much to get me on the edge of my seat and jumping at shadows but this film really didn't scare me. I enjoyed the story and was interested to see how it would end but the thrill wasn't there.
One of the problems is that a lot of the film happens at night. A woman in black with a black veil over her face appears in the shadows of a big dark house at night. Now maybe on the big screen at the cinema it was different but on my TV it wasn't always easy to tell what was happening except by the expressions of the "alive" characters in the same scene and the background music.
I really enjoyed seeing Daniel Radcliffe in a different acting role and was pleased that the only time I thought about him as Harry Potter was when I wished he'd use a spell to put some lights on! The rest of the cast were equally good especially Ciarán Hinds as a man desperate not to believe the truth of the events around him and what happened to his son.
I did have a number of questions throughout the story that distracted me. Why did no-one in the village simply explain to Kipps why they were so against him going to the old house? Why did none of the villagers attempt to leave the village and take their children to safety somewhere else? Most importantly for me, how and why did the Woman in Black kill the children in the way that she did? There must have been an easier way to do it , surely?
For me, the ending of this film didn't really work. I understand that the end of the film is different to the original novel and I am interested to find out how the book ended. The ending of the film felt wrong somehow. It seemed to take something away from the film and left me wondering what the point of the last hour and a half was.
The DVD comes packed with extras including interviews and behind the scenes featurettes and commentaries These all provided an interesting look at the making of the film and even featured interviews with the original author Susan Hill.
This is a DVD to watch for the story, the acting and the bonus features. For me, it didn't provide the thrills I was expecting but neither did it keep me awake and terrified for nights afterwards which is always a good thing.
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Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play. A widowed lawyer travels to a secluded village on an important assignment, and encounters a vengeful ghost with mysterious motives. After losing his beloved wife, Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) was nearly consumed by grief. When an important client of Arthur's dies, he pulls himself out of mourning to settle the man's affairs. But in this town, everyone has a secret. Something horrible once happened here, and it seems that the locals are determined to ensure Arthur never finds out what it was. Now the more time Arthur spends in his client's crumbling estate, the more aware he becomes of a presence that isn't quite human. In this house dwells a woman's ghost. In life she lost something precious, and now in death she'll do whatever it takes to get it back. Until she does, anyone who dares enter this house is doomed. Actors Daniel Radcliffe, Sophie Stuckey, Harmon Molly, Emma Shorey, Misha Handley, Jessica Raine, Roger Allam, Lucy May Barker, Indira Ainger, Andy Robb, Ciarán Hinds, Shaun Dooley, Mary Stockley, Alexia Osborne & Alfie Field Director James Watkins Certificate 12 years and over Year 2012 Screen Widescreen Languages English - Dolby Digital (5.1)
Supernatural drama, based on the novel by Susan Hill, in which a young lawyer finds himself battling to contain the ghost of a dead woman bent on destruction. When Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) leaves his son (Misha Handley) behind in London to head off on an assignment to a remote village, he has little idea of what lies in store for him. Once there, Arthur discovers that the locals live in such fear of a mysterious figure known as the 'Woman in Black' that they keep their children locked away indoors, afraid that contact with the woman would harm them. Arthur's investigations lead him to believe that the woman is a ghost, haunted by her inability to save her son from drowning. When she turns her attention towards Arthur's own son, the lawyer is forced to confront the spectre head on.
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