review by Adam Cook Patron
The Woman in Black 2012
Watched Jun 19, 2012
Adam Cook’s review:
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 a father or bereaved husband.
The second problem is the lack of palpable dread and effective atmosphere. A Gothic tale such as this should be dripping in a sense of foreboding yet this adaptation is disappointingly flat. Instead it relies heavily on cheap jump scares to deliver the horror but they need to be used sparingly if they are to be effective. Bar a 15-minute period the film never really delivers the required terror to be genuinely scary. The script is rather heavy handed, the changes from the source material add very little and even the more seasoned, and normally reliable, actors are far from brilliant. Disappointing.
Yeah I thought the actors were disappointing and I've no interest in the JUMP - SHOCK tactics. I thought the music was nice and it looked quite pretty! Ultimately disappointing though, I concur
Jump scares are a real pet hate of mine because there seems to be an over reliance on them when it comes to modern films. Give me a film with a great atmosphere any day.
I think jump scares can be used to great technique. The problem is it has become a crutch, and few directors know how to combine them with atmosphere to make it just as creepy as it is scary.
A great use of a jump scare would be that brief part in Mulholland Drive. David Lynch lets a very slow moving camera, moody music, and advanced knowledge (anticipation) to make use of a great jump scare.
Definitely. They very much have their place in horror, my problem is just using it solely to provide the scares rather than building the all important atmosphere. You see it most in found footage films where it is a procession of jumps and it becomes boring and ineffective very quickly.
I agree Adam.
Very good review!
To quote from my review, you get "ghost reflections in mirrors, little girls in dresses, music boxes, doors opening and shutting by themselves, writing in blood on the wall, etc etc"...it really is nothing except one jump scare after another. I also have a big problem with the last act of the film, but we can't do spoiler comments. Suffice it to say that the next-to-last 20 minutes feel pointless after the last scene.
Oddly enough, two of my favorite jump scares of recent memory are from found footage films.
I think I liked the movie a little bit more than you do, but not that much more. Did you see it in the theater because I felt that added some to it since half the audience was jumping out of their seats toward the middle of the film when all the scares kept coming.
No, I just watched it at home. I much prefer watching a scary film in a dark and empty house than in a cinema packed with screaming teenage girls.
Oh it was a bunch of screaming adults!
I guess I've just been unlucky then as every horror film I've seen at the cinema has been full of teenagers that jump and laugh at every little moment. It always really takes me out of the experience.
@Adam That happens to me a lot as well. Sometimes active audience can add to the experience. I saw Grindhouse in a packed theater with a very active/enthusiastic crowd and it was awesome. I've also had the same experience you've had though where it's a bunch of annoying teenagers. That happened when I saw The Village people where screaming at every little thing, and that film isn't really scary at all.
An enthusiastic audience for action and comedy films is great. It isn't even bad for some types of horror like the ones normally focused more on ridiculous gore rather than building an unsettling atmosphere.
I agree.
I agree as well, nothing like a disturbing scene being ruined by laughter or gasps.
This was typical and uneventful in every way.