The Woman In Black – Pretty Standard, Pretty Scary

Daniel Radcliffe will forever be known as Harry Potter.  That’s just how it goes when you are in a long-running franchise.  Especialy if that franchise reaches the level of popularity that Harry Potter did.  Mr. Radcliffe can play other characters, though, as proven by James Watkins’ second feature The Woman in Black (2012).  It’s a horror film.  That might surprise you if you know much about who wrote it.  Susan Hill wrote the novel this film is based on, but that’s not the interesting thing… Jane Goldman wrote the script. She helped write Kick Ass (2010) and X-Men: First Class (2012).  Those are about as far from horror as you can get.

What is it about?

Arthur (Radcliffe) is a young lawyer who leaves his wife and son behind to go to a remote village on a case.  The case involves dead children and seems to be a touchy subject around the village.  The locals also aren’t thrilled he is there.  When he visits an old house on the ouskirts of the already disconnected village, he finds out that someone else doesn’t care for his presence… the ghost of a woman in black (hence the title).  Just like most other horror stories, he gets scared by her, then makes it his goal to figure out why she is haunting the house and the village.  It’s pretty standard.

Is it any good?

As I said, it’s pretty standard.  It does, however, have some good scares.  Since that’s what you look for in a horror film, it does its job.  But it won’t blow you away.  The supernatural reasoning behind the ghost isn’t very original and the main setting (old, creaky mansion) is definitely not original.  The image of the woman in black and the other scary images are good, though… I jumped and gasped a couple of times.  Also, the film doesn’t fall back too often on cheap jump scares which is nice.

Daniel Radcliffe’s character is not poorly developed but I’m really just rooting for him during the film because he’s the main character.  To be honest, I was also rooting for the ghost because I wanted to see more scares.  The worst thing about his character though is that there is really no reason for him to be a lawyer.  He could have been any other profession that would have gotten him into the big scary house (realtor, family relative, whatever) and the movie would have been the same.  He doesn’t use any skills that are specifically lawyer-related in his attempt to deal with the ghost.  Radcliffe’s performance is good, though.

Overall, The Woman in Black is a passable horror flick that will scare you while you watch but it won’t stick with you.  If you are in the mood to watch Harry Potter get scared, then get it… if not, rent something else.

Nolan’s Grade: C+

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