Review: The Woman in Black: Good film, but she’d do better to keep to the Shadows.

 I have a confession to make. I like Daniel Radcliff. I like how he likes cricket. I think he came across very well in Extras. Lastly I think he has an interesting face. The Woman in Black marks a step in the right direction It is the first step in a process towards throwing off that cloak he donned for Harry Potter.

James Watkins' The Woman in Black sees Mr Kipps (Daniel Radcliff) up against the supernatural again. Only this time he does not have a wand.

Watkins retelling of the 1980s novel is not faithful, but still a ripping good 90 minutes. The film has all the ingredients of a classic horror. Eel house is isolated a seemingly abandoned coastal mansion set adrift upon a grave strewn tidal island. Populating this setting are unfriendly locals, mysterious deaths and a terrifying, violent ghost. Think Bram Stoker’s Dracula meet Henry James’ Turn of the Screw.

Kipps is sent on law business to find the will of Alice Drablow. The estate, and the village it borders is haunted by The Woman in Black, played, funnily enough, by Liz White. Kipps, with the help of local land owner Sam Daily (Ciarán Hinds) attempts to lay her spirit to rest – she is reeking vengeance on a world that denied her the right to care for her child – and essentially fail.

If there is a fault with the film it is that the Woman in Black appears to much. Indeed, by the end of the film, which sees her looming over the auditorium, I found myself wishing she’d go and bother someone else. Special effects were layered over White, causing her to look like the Scottish Widow on crack. Something which might have happened if Brown hadn’t bailed them out.

The film strides the line between modernity vs supernatural nicely. Evident when Sam and Kipps pull the drowned carriage from the squelchy mud towards the end of the film with the help of Sam’s car ‘the first one in the county. We also saw modernity tooting its horn when the pair rev through the stalwart villages. Although one local (Victor McGuire) looks like he would win if the car drove into him.

 This film is a cheap thriller but none the worst for it. Well worth spending an evening with. You’ll be annoyed with for feeling tense because you really know you shouldn’t. Compared to the likes of Paranormal Activity this film is a walk in the park. Saying that, I was glad to not walk past any women in black on my way home.

The Woman in Black is in cinemas now. 

Sam Reeves