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The Woman in Black
UK / Canada / Sweden 2012
produced by
Richard Jackson, Simon Oakes, Brian Oliver, Tobin Armbrust (executive), Neil Dunn (executive), Guy East (executive), Roy Lee (executive), Xavier Marchand (executive), Marc Schipper (executive), Nigel Sinclair (executive), Tyler Thompson (executive) for Hammer, Cross Creek Pictures, Alliance Films, UK Film Council, Talisman Productions, Exclusive Media Group
directed by James Watkins
starring Daniel Radcliffe, Ciarán Hinds, Tim McMullan, Janet McTeer, Cathy Sara, Jessica Raine, Misha Handley, Roger Allam, Aoife Doherty, Sophie Stuckey, Andy Robb, Shaun Dooley, Mary Stockley, Alfie Field, Alexia Osborne, William Tobin, Victor McGuire, Daniel Cerqueira, Liz White, Alisa Khazanova, Ashley Foster, David Burke, Sidney Johnston, Lucy May Barker, Indira Ainger, Emma Shorey, Molly Harmon, Ellisa Walker-Reid
screenplay by Jane Goldman, based on the novel by Susan Hill, music by Marco Beltrami
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe), a young lawyer suffering from
depression over the loss of his wife (Sophie Stuckey) on one hand, and
underperforming at his job at the other, is given a final warning by his
boss and is tasked with going through the paperwork of a deceased client,
in some mansion in the middle of the marsh in a small village in the
middle of nowhere. At the village, Kipps isn't really welcome, first he
has problems getting a room at the hotel he has been booked into, then Mr
Jerome (Tim McMullan), the local solicitor he was supposed to work with,
wants to hand him only scraps of the paperwork and ship him back to
London, the sooner the better - but Kipps perseveres, and eventually has
someone take him to the mansion, which is usually shunned by the locals.
The mansion itself is spooky enough, and eventually Kipps sees a woman in
black and witnesses a tragic accident where a whole coach vanishes into
the marsh. He tries to report this to the police, but the constable
doesn't believe him as he insists nobody would go to the marsh, let alone
be found near the mansion. Also at the police station, a little girl
(Alexia Osborne) dies in his arms. Somehow the villagers seem to make him
responsible for the death, just because he has been at the mansion and
seen the woman in black - all but Sam Daily (Ciarán
Hinds), who offers him his hospitality and proves himself to be a
bit shocked by local superstitions, even if his wife (Janet McTeer) seems
to be a firm believer. Now the truth behind it all is that the region has
seen especially many lethal accidents concerning children (even the
Dailys'), and these occur every time someone sees the woman in black - as
Kipps did. Kipps is
undeterred, and he returns to the mansion - only to suffer a night of pure
terror. But he finds out some things about the woman in black, like she
was once an occupant of the house, and back in the day, her boy was taken
from her and later died in a coach accident in the marshs (the one Kipps
thought he had witnessed), and since wants to have her revenge on the
locals (who were instrumental in her boy been taken) - so he and Daily
figure if only she could be reunited with her son (whose body has been
left in the marsh as it seemed impossible to recover at the time), things
might be alright again. Of course, all of this is easier said than done
... Back when, The
Woman in Black was announced as veteran film studio Hammer's
return to gothic horror, and of course, the film ticks all the boxes to
live up to this claim, including telling an old-fashioned story in a very
traditional way with a heavy emphasis on atmosphere. Thing is, the movie
is really over-achieving, throwing a few too many elements that make
gothic horror into it to remain coherent. The outcome is a film that takes
quite a bit of time to find its story and to be spooky for all the right
reasons. It's really just too much of everything, with many scenes that
make no or only limited narrative sense, and sequences that really work
counterproductive to the narrative flow. That
said, the film's by no means all bad, the landscapes and locations are
first rate, direction and camerawork are solid, and the ensemble cast's
first rate for sure. One would just wish for a better, and indeed less
generic, screenplay.
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