The Woman in Black (2012)

Stars: 5 / 10

A good old-fashioned, slow-paced creeper. A classical Hammer setting and story (oh, those angry, distrustful villagers!)

Predictable and slightly dragging, this is not a great film, by any means, but generally it was entertaining and spooky.

The production quality was fairly impressive for an indie film. Decent effects, makeup, and acting (and Radcliffe is just so pretty when he's sad). Great locations, costumes and sets. I really liked the actual antique toys used in the film (loaned to the production by a private collector... niiice!)

Although it's spooky, I really wanted to like this film more than I did... sadly, the most horrific things about it are the over-use of "boo scares", accompanied by sudden orchestral slamming and ear-piecing screaming ghost faces (ugh, that one trick pony is sooo tired.) Honestly, the noisy pop-up scares really cheapened the overall fear factor of the film and are the primary reason why it didn't score higher for me.

Even though it's not particularly distinctive, and certainly far from perfect, overall, I still enjoyed The Woman in Black. I would recommend this film to someone who is a fan of classical Hammer films, slow-burn ghost stories, and someone who prefers psychological terror, rather than gore.


IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1596365/?ref_=rvi_tt