The Woman in Black (2012)

The Woman in Black (2012).
Flavor: Ghost/Thriller.
Ingredients: Old creepy mansion, disturbing dolls, jump scares, angry ghost.

Plot: Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) is a young lawyer who is depressed by the loss of his beautiful wife after giving birth to a son. His son, now grown to a toddler, draws pictures of him with a sad face. He is assigned to prepare a large house for sale in a marsh and travels to an obscure village where he is shunned by most of the townspeople. He visits the Eel Marsh House, the estate of the late Alice Drabow, to look it over, but finds his job has grown more perilous as it is haunted by the ghost of a woman scorned. He learns from the villagers that the ghost of the woman in black seeks revenge against their children because her child was taken away from her. Kipps is befriended by Sam (Ciaran Hinds) and his wife Elizabeth (Janet McTeer). They, too, have lost a son, and they help the lawyer to investigate the background of the estate and what happened. -IMDb


Review: I hate this movie. Not because it's bad, but because its good, very good at what it does: it scares me. Now i will watch your run of the mill slasher film (yawn) or the gory zombies, without batting an eyelash. But make me watch a suspenseful movie where you just know the jump is coming, and I'm the one hiding behind the pillow with one eye open. And that is exactly what The Woman in Black does well.

The plot isn't exactly original, (ghost in an old mansion, superstitious unwelcoming villagers..etc. etc.)
But it is well made, and there are enough little touches of originality to keep it fresh. The mansion is just what you'd expect a haunted mansion to be. And i quite liked the part they had the tide play in this. Creepy house with surrounding graveyard not enough? Hey lets make it totally cut off from the world when the tide is in! The shots of the marshes were really convincing as well in showing how remote and desolate the area was.

The suspense was well played out, if a little typical of this sort of movie. Personally i can't stand this sort of thing. I mean you know there's something down that dark hallway that's gonna jump out at you. You just don't know when...and BAM! that's the brilliance of suspense, and why i have no fingernails left.

Daniel Radcliffe's acting was truly great, as well as the supporting cast. Overall this is a really well made film. And I liked the old fashioned vintage feel of the movie too.
The only things i can say against it is the plot isn't mindbogglingly original, the woman screeching gets a little old, and the scares are good but not totally unexpected.

Recommended: Yes. Especially if you like suspenseful ghost movies. Have to give props to a horror movie that depended on convincing acting, story and atmosphere instead of naked screaming girls and gore.

The Woman in Black is owned by Hammer Films