Horror can be defined
in many ways. It can be terrifying,
where you’ll have nightmares for weeks.
It can be horrifying, where it is just plain horrific and you squirm in
disgust. It can be scary in a totally
different way (Katherine Heigl anyone??).
But sometimes all you want is a good old fashioned scare.
‘The Woman in Black’
will give you exactly that. Set sometime
in the early to mid-1900s, the movie follows Daniel Radcliffe’s Arthur Kipps, a
widowed lawyer sent to follow up a deceased estate known as Eel Marsh
House. Upon his arrival, the townsfolk
are determined to make him leave – with Kipps even more determined to stay and
finish his business. What he is unaware
of is the curse that haunts the town, a ghostly woman in black hell bent on
wreaking vengeance on anyone who lays their eyes on her.
It’s tricky not to
give too much of the plot away, so I won’t go into too much of a synopsis of
the film. Radcliffe is a great actor,
which makes me more sorry that all I could hear in the back of my head was “You’re
a wizard, Harry!” He seemed rather young
to have such a young son, but that was a reflection of the times, I
suppose. The movie had all of the
typical clichés of a horror movie: dark hallways, locked doors, misty
marshlands. There wasn’t a great deal of
score, something I feel contributed to the overall feel of the film. It did take a good half hour before anything
major happened, however the last thirty to forty minutes of the film were truly
engaging. There was a few jump scares,
but honestly it was the creepy doll factor that scared the bejesus out of me. I don’t scare easily but they gave me some
serious wiggins.
I would definitely
recommend ‘The Woman in Black’ to any horror fan. I love a good scare and I feel like I definitely
got my money’s worth. I am predicting
that the movie wouldn’t have as much of an effect had I have been at home
(unless I was alone and it was dark), so on that note please spend some cashola
and check it out at the cinemas. You’ll
hate yourself for the parts you jump at, and I can say that from
experience. But you’ll definitely come
out of the cinema feeling satisfied.
Just a shame we got
it so long after America. Ahh, gotta
love the way Australian cinema appreciates horror.
