The woman in black is a film of particular intrigue as it is the first big movie that young Daniel Radcliffe has done since the Harry Potter franchise has ended. I call him young but he is more or less my age, which I guess is why I found it particularly odd that he had a child in this film, a child of about 4/5 years old. Indeed I feel sorry for Radcliffe, as in both my mind and the minds of many others he will always be the boy wizard, a child. It's not that it's a stretch to see him in another role, it's that it's currently a stretch to see him as a different age band. Luckily for him, this will pass as he gets older. It is unfair to criticise him for this, as it was unfair of me to criticise Days of Heaven as Richard Gere was unbelievable playing such a young man (he was young at the time, I'm just used to him being old, and he's aged particularly well). So I have tried to ignore this fact in my thoughts on the film.
The film itself is actually very frightening, it's easily the most frightening 12 I've seen since the others. It's been commented on many times in the past, but this is a reversal back to old style scares, none of this paranormal activity jump from your seat nonsense, nor the torture porn that has become so popular lately (a genre I find more amusing than frightening). So here we have it, a 12 which shows the adults how it's done. The best way I can describe it is that whilst I never screamed, the bottle of coke I was holding throughout became misshapen due to the intensity that I was clinging to it.
The story is that struggling with the death of his wife during childbirth, trying to keep up with his work, Radcliffe is given one last chance by the law firm that he works at to save his job, he must go North, and settle the estate of a recently deceased client. In their house they left numerous documents that he must go through to determine whether the will they had was in fact the last will and testament. However, when he arrives up North he is met with much suspicion and it is fair to say that he is far from welcomed with open arms. Warned to keep away from the house he ignores the warnings and sets off there anyway, it is here that he begins to see visions of the woman in black and learn more of the curse that is supposedly on the village.
As I've mentioned before, the scares in this film are effective, this is done mainly through a combination of having old Victorian toys (which are just creepy on their own), prolonged shots of seemingly normal things which allow your eyes time to focus on the thing that shouldn't be there and send a chill down your spine and creepy kids. It's a nice mix, and whilst there are a couple of cheap shocks, the majority deals with creating a mood, unsettling the audience and therefore leaving a lasting impression. The story is well told and unfolds at a natural pace, never feeling too rushed once the secrets are revealed (as can happen with some horror films). Radcliffe had a lot to prove with this film, he gets a lot of criticism for his acting, and whilst he's not amazing in this film he does show a marked improvement and range that he started to show toward the end of the Harry Potter franchise. I think that with time and some decent collaborations with some great directors he could build himself a very respectable following (think Leonardo DiCaprio moving from being annoying in Titanic, then with Scorsese's help becoming one of the finest actors in America... but not quite as big)
This is well worth seeing. It's suitable for most people, and will hopefully show a generation that you don't need to be very violent or have things thrown at the screen to chill people to the bone. Horror needs a decent revival, and hopefully this is the start of it.
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