The Woman In Black - review

James Watkins's film, which looks good, is a ghost story as much as a horror movie and yields up its secrets at an even pace. Some may feel that the ruses used to set us shivering with anticipated fear, such as the mysteriously swinging rocking chair or the toys and ornaments that suddenly come to life, have been used so often before that they lose force. No single cathartic shock pulls us up but a steady drip of anxious moments attempt the desired effect.

Radcliffe is not given a vast amount to do; his is very much a reactive part as Ciarán Hinds is opposite him for much of the film as the landowner he meets on the train to Crythin Gifford who doesn't believe in all the morbid superstitions of the local yokels.

Jane Goldman, of Kick-Ass fame, has provided a serviceable rather than notable screenplay but it changes the emphasis of the book considerably since Kipps is no longer a happily married man looking forward to fatherhood but a widower whose wife died when giving him the son he adores. He's already trying to find equilibrium before entering the ghostly house. There is also a feelgood ending, totally different from the book. It all works reasonably well but the film lacks real punch.

The Woman In Black