Simply, the best Gothic Horror to be made in years.
‘The Woman in Black’, opens with three innocent, beautiful little Victorian girls, who respond to an unseen stimulus: They glibly leaving their tea sets and playthings, walk purposefully to the three windows, open them, and jump out to their deaths below.
With powerful openings like this are all good films made. The whole audience in its thrall, ‘The Woman in Black’ then transports us to the world of Arthur Kipps. Arthur is a struggling lawyer whose grief over the death of his wife in childbirth has led to a downward spiral, only held in check by having to provide for his little son, Joseph, now a toddler. However, Arthur’s boss’s patience is at an end, and he gives Arthur a last chance. If Arthur can complete an assignment that is proving elusive and hard to manage, Arthur will have saved his job.
The assignment? You guessed it… To sort out the affairs of the deceased, and make ready for sale, the creepy sounding ‘Eel Marsh House,’ an imposing gothic pile set theatrically on an island in the middle of marshlands, cut off daily by the tide. Hang on… empty? Not quite. As Arthur overcomes strangely hysterical, village hostility to his assignment, and gamely stays over at the Mansion, it appears the place is far from empty. One apparition, a strange woman, in black veiled mourning garb, is particularly hard for Arthur to pin down.
As Arthur reads about the tragedy of how the young son of the house, Nathaniel Drablow, was drowned in the Marsh, but his body never recovered, Arthur uncovers an even more sinister truth. Nathaniel was in fact, adopted by the Drablows, being the son of an unfortunate sister, Janet. But Janet, not being of very sound mind, blamed the family for Nathaniel’s death, and in true psychotic form, vowed to wreak havoc on all in revenge. To reveal more would spoil the fun. However, even with this melodramatic story, full of tropes and recognised gothic signatures, ‘The Woman in Black’ completely delivers.
Based on the theme of childhood death, and the horrific grief of losing a child, which strikes terror into all of us, gives the story incredible weight. The script is admirably adapted from Susan Hill’s book, by the talented Jane Goldman, (X-Men: First Class, Kick Ass). Jane’s naturalistic dialog avoids all the usual clichés of Horror writing and elevates ‘The Woman in Black’ to something far classier. As does the casting. Daniel Radcliffe is superb, a great character actor in the making, whose chameleon ability to really make us believe he was ‘Arthur Kipps’, drove the whole film. The actors around him were all well cast too, and ably pulled together by director James Watkins, (Eden Lake) whose gift for creating tension, thrills, jumps and jerks didn’t quit the whole way through the film.
The ‘The Woman in Black’ is set to become a modern gothic classic, and for once, the warning, ‘not for those of a emotionally fragile disposition’ really applies: ‘The Woman in Black’, is scary, and has the hallmark of all really good horror – the fear stays with you.
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4.5 Stars
Jane Alexandra Foster