The Woman in Black
2012 Directed by James Watkins
Synopsis
What did they see?
The story follows a young lawyer, Arthur Kipps, who is ordered to travel to a remote village and sort out a recently deceased client’s papers. As he works alone in the client’s isolated house, Kipps begins to uncover tragic secrets, his unease growing when he glimpses a mysterious woman dressed only in black. Receiving only silence from the locals, Kipps is forced to uncover the true identity of the Woman in Black on his own, leading to a desperate race against time when he discovers her true identity.
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Nigel Kneale’s TV adaptation of The Woman in Black is still one of my favourite British horror films so I was apprehensive when I heard the director of the uninspired Eden Lake would be teaming with Harry Potter to bring the story to the big screen. Unfortunately my apprehension proved to be more than justified.
James Watkins has made a very handsome film but as a horror movie it rarely works. The central casting of Daniel Radcliffe is the first stumbling block. I’ve never rated him as an actor and his performance here has done little to convince me that my original opinion was incorrect. It is like watching a boy play dress up and he never once convinces as…
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Harry's back to take on the ghost of hermione.
It's been 5 years since Harry left 6th form and he's managed to get himself a job as a family solicitor, hes pretty crap at it and his boss sends him on a last chance job to sort of the personal affects of hermione granger, his one time school friend who died in a freak shoelace accident in her home, a few days after her son drank too much chocolate squishy.
Harry has lost his wand in this next thrilling installment of JK Rowling's, which leaves the viewer captivated about his various new moves such as...
Investigating noises in rooms
Hearing noises
Reacting generally to noisesA fairly good movie, I was surprised to see hagrid had lost so much weight, and that No house points were awarded for pulling that chap out the mud
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After watching this film I was left with a question. Is anyone even trying in the horror genre anymore? Seriously it pretty much contains everything that is wrong with horror films.
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This is a great lesson in atmospheric horror. Nice, slow building tension with mysterious happenings. Frequent moments of "did you just see that thing move?" and "Behind you, Harry Potter!!" spookiness. I jumped a few times and had goosebumps at least once. I know it was based on a stage play per other people's posts, and I'd love to see it. All in all, an excellent return of Hammer Studios.
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I enjoyed this much more than expected and that's mainly due to the fact that at its half way point this film manages to shrug off its snail-like pace and incessant need to resort to cheap scares.
I'll start by giving an enormous amount of credit to the production design of this film. It looks and feels amazingly authentic. The attention to detail is stunning.
The story is well known and rather standard fair. From the moment Radcliffe's (who's just perfectly fine here, by the way) character gets to the house the titular Woman in Black haunts, this films comes into its own and manages to create some very atmospheric horror with some striking imagery.
It's often a shame that films like this tend to tie things up in a paint it by numbers way, but given the source material it's understandable and forgiveable as there is enough to enjoy.
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"Don't go chasing shadows, Arthur." - Samuel Daily
I never ever thought I'd say this, but I'm probably a Woman in Black purist. I don't like the book, nor the original TV movie, but they had something that the recent screen adaptation lacks: plot. But then again, this is genuinely scary. This is an odd film simply because of the fact that it substitutes any sort of plausibility for pure terror. When realistically Kipps would get the hell out of that goddamn house at the first sign of some looming black figure outside, he stays and fails to focus on any of the work he has imposed on himself and then runs around the house looking for the sources of…
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So what this mostly will be remembered for is as Daniel Radcliffe's first post Harry Potter project. Which is a bit disrespectful to what is a, quite chilling decent horror movie.
Based on a Susan Hill novel of the same name, the film follows a young widowed lawyer played by Daniel Radcliffe called Arthur Kipps, who is essentially on his last warning at work and travels to Eel Marsh House to look through the papers of the late Alice Drablow. he experiences resistance from the local and glimpses of a woman dressed only in black. Daniel Radcliffe is adequate in his role continually improving in all his films. As he was no acting child prodigy that's for sure. The film…
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People told me that this film is "Extremely Scary". It wasn't. I think that the performances all around are very strange and weird. The plot sometimes even if its boring. The visuals are okay, the filming is good and the script is very strange. I don't hats this movie, I just think its okay.
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With it's incredibly generic title it makes me wonder if it was SUPPOSE to be boring.
You can read my review at...
http://revronmovies.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-woman-in-black.html
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Harry Potter was going through post He-who-must-not-be-named stress and went looking for another pale, supernatural specter.
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Surprisingly scary and creepy. I knew director Watkins had it in him because of the solid Eden Lake, but The Woman in Black still caught me off guard with its eerie atmosphere and great look.
A little too many jump scares, and Daniel Radcliffe proves he's still a mediocre actor (he seemed a little too young for his character, although he did grow on me during the film), but this is still a good horror film worth a watch.
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While Radcliffe is good, he looks too young for the role. The movie is dark and mysterious enough, but the story is just not original.
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After watching this film I was left with a question. Is anyone even trying in the horror genre anymore? Seriously it pretty much contains everything that is wrong with horror films.
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Wow. Out of nothing comes a Hammer movie that is really a Hammer movie!
I mean, the movie is technically so well crafted, camera, sound, pacing, the chosen setting being the icing on the cake.
It makes you feel uncomfortable and scared event though the plot is so thin!
And: Daniel Radcliffe is an amazing actor. -
For the second post in a row I find myself reviewing a film based on a play that I very much admire. It’s pointless to compare the two, I realise, but I will say that The Woman in Black is a remarkable play but a very average film.
Daniel Radcliffe plays Arthur Kipps, (definitely a man, look he has stubble and everything) a widower and single parent. He is sent to take care of the sale of an old house in a remote village, the scene of an unconnected yet resonant tragedy.
Radcliffe is adequate. Very adequate, but he is at his most adequate when not called upon to deliver any form of dialogue. This is fortuitous as he is…