Dispatched
to settle the affairs of a recently deceased woman, Kipps arrives in
a quaint but markedly
rude village in the heart of the Victorian countryside
where, beneath its chocolate-box
veneer, dark undercurrents flow swiftly. No one wants to talk,.
Kipps is warned to stay away, and
the children are confined to
their homes.
A high
rate of infant mortality stalks the frightened streets and hushed
voices speak of a vengeful spirit
connected to the property of the dead woman. An apparition of a
black-clad woman is said to lead youngsters away to their death.
Nearby an abandoned house casts a deathly
shadow over the place. The house lies across a narrow, sodden
causeway precariously crossing the marsh. The path is covered cut off
by the tide for several hours a day, effectively trapping visitors
there should they visit at the wrong time.
The
only friendly face in the village belongs to Daily (A sombre Ciaran
Hinds) father grieving over the loss of his boy. Daily drives Kipps
across the marsh to the house but doesn't hold with any of this
“superstition nonsense”. As a lone voice of reason and science in
the village he is severely outnumbered.
Writer
Jane Goldman has treated the original novel by Suan Hill as a
template, maintaining the bones of the plot and the
sense of dread. The Woman in Black is most effective when
Kipps is alone in the house,
sorting through paperwork. As he works
he starts to hear noises, see things in his periphery. Something is
with him. Tension is carefully built as he investigates. One sequence
calls to mind the 1963 film The
Haunting,
when. A reverberating,
bassy thumping emanates from behind a locked door, ramping up the
tension. And the house itself could be a
twin of Hill House from that film.
Director
James Watkins (director of “Broken Britain” parable Eden Lake
and writer of the curious My Little Eye) paces the scares in
well-timed ebbs and flows, maintaining a strong sense of foreboding.
An accomplished cast bring a touch of class to a tale with little
ambition other than to creep under the
skin of the audience. A few well-worn tropes serve to distance the
seasoned film-viewer: wind-up toys springing to clock-sprung
life of their own accord; gaudy,
glassy-eyed Victorian
dolls observing all, and words etched in blood spewed
across the walls. There is a small nod to the debate about the
supernatural versus enlightenment but it is soon abandoned when the
source of the terror is revealed.
The good
news is that The Woman in Black does what a film under the Hammer
productions banner is expected to. It provides a roller-coaster of
thrills and jumps, some cheesy and some downright scary, while
remaining largely free of computer generated imagery. The finale is a
little wrought and sentimental, though not enough to derail what has
gone before. There are moments of silliness and some straining of
credibility in the effort to scare the audience. But, give in to it,
leave your cynicism at home, and the hairs on the back of your neck
will stand proud. You'll laugh with relief that you survived the next
big “BOO!” and grab the hand of your partner. Isn't that what you
want from a horror film?
UK general
release: February 10th
