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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Fans of classically structured haunted house/ghost stories will relish the skillfully unnerving chain of events in The Woman in Black, whether or not they're fans of Harry Potter. The good new is that Daniel Radcliffe leaves Harry behind for good in his first post-Potter role. Radcliffe plays Arthur Kipps, a young solicitor tasked with resolving the affairs of a recently deceased woman and her brooding estate in the gloom of the remote Victorian England-era village of Crythin Gifford. The mood is melancholic all around, starting with Kipps himself, who lost his wife to childbirth a few years earlier. His employer has had just about enough of his moping about and gives him the assignment as a last resort to save his job. When he arrives in the small village, the icy response he receives does not bode well for successful completion of his mission. All the townspeople want him gone, and possibly for good reason. Many of their children have died mysteriously gruesome deaths that they blame on the titular black-clad woman whose own child was tragically sucked to his death in the muck surrounding her seaside mansion. This new stranger who wants to unearth the deadly secrets trapped in the decrepit old house is a threat they cannot abide, and sure enough the deaths keep on coming as he delves deeper into the dark recesses of the house and the history of its ghostly occupant. There are scares aplenty in The Woman in Black, and they come from a genuineness that relies on creep-outs rather than gross-outs. Faces in windows, apparitions barely there, slow-building moodiness that suddenly erupts into a silent scream (or sometimes not so silent) make for an extremely effective and often terribly unnerving atmosphere of dread. The movie comes with several impressive pedigrees as well. It's based on a popular novel published in the early '80s, which was also adapted into a long-running hit play. The movie additionally resurrects the Hammer Films brand, an esteemed British production company that churned out moody and distinctive horror films and exploitive psycho-thrillers for decades in the mid 20th century. Indeed, the presence of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee seems to lurk around every dusty, cobwebbed corner in The Woman in Black, right behind the slamming doors and only just glimpsed in the flickering candlelight. Radcliffe is perfect for the role of a heartbroken man whose rationality is stretched to the point of no return by the things he may or may not be seeing. Several strong supporting performances add to the gravitas, especially Ciarán Hinds as a kindred soul and father figure to Kipps, and perhaps the only other rational man in Crythin Gifford. But then rationality has almost nothing to do with the disquieting spirit of this authentically enigmatic, finely understated and efficiently chilling return to classic horror. --Ted Fry
Product Description
A young lawyer travels to a remote village to organize a recently deceased client's papers, where he discovers the ghost of a scorned woman set on vengeance.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:Blu-ray
There are two kinds of horror films. The first depends for its scares on graphic gore, unrestrained violence, and blood -- lots of it. The second relies more on mood and an escalating sense of terror than gruesome images to get under the skin. "The Woman in Black" falls into the second category. It's a film rich in atmosphere that takes its time getting underway but, once it kicks in, never lets go.
In pre-World War I England, Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe), a young London lawyer with a small son, is grieving over his dead wife. His employer is fed up with Arthur's dour attitude and sends him to Yorkshire to handle the sale of an estate. Arthur is warned that this will be his last chance to distinguish himself for the firm.
Arriving after a long journey, Arthur is met and befriended by a local squire, Daily (Ciaran Hinds), though the other townsfolk are not thrilled with the visit of an outsider. Arthur is brought to the house of the deceased, which lies quite a distance from town. It is the textbook example of the House of Gloom -- grey, run down, surrounded by overgrown shrubbery, broken gates marking its entrance -- a place that immediately foreshadows bad things to come.
For much of the movie, Arthur is alone in the house -- or is he? Many of the trappings of a traditional ghost story are here -- the rainstorm, shadowy corridors, a dog barking at something not seen, an endless number of rooms, each with creepy and unsettling contents. And then there are the sightings: a darkly attired female figure, a face at a window, a fresh handprint on a window, a corpse rising from a muddy grave. Whether these are real or only figments of Arthur's imagination is left to speculation -- at least for a while.
"The Woman in Black" is from Hammer Studios, famous for a series of highly profitable Technicolor horror films made between 1957 and the early 70's. Those features always had great production values and good actors, giving them far more style than their competitors. "The Woman in Black" is true to that tradition. Instead of a collection of young and pretty 20-somethings who will be disposed of in messy ways, it boasts a first-rate cast.
Mr. Radcliffe's character is the focus of the movie and he is totally convincing as the lawyer hoping to make good while under a cloud of depression over the loss of his beloved wife. He infuses his performance with a sad determination, as if he is running a track meet with his feet encased in cement blocks. He forges on, knowing his livelihood depends on successfully delving through a myriad of papers, settling the estate, and seeing to the sale of the house. Yet he misses his wife and the life they had together. His Arthur Kipps is as far removed from Harry Potter as Hamlet is from the Nutty Professor.
Mr. Hinds's Squire Daily is on hand mostly to provide balance to the inhospitable townsfolk, who would be equally at home carrying torches up a hill in a Frankenstein movie. He prides himself on not being superstitious and refuses to believe the many deaths of children in town are anything more than unfortunate coincidence. He also provides some exposition, filling us in on what happened in that gloomy house and why Arthur will undoubtedly fail to find a local buyer. Hinds has a patrician look and never smiles. He suggests a careworn aristocrat who has seen much and prefers to trust his senses to belief in the otherworldly.
Janet McTeer appears briefly, but unforgettably, as Mrs. Daily, a woman who is either an amusing eccentric or a looney, depending on how you interpret her actions. Ms. McTeer adds bizarre contrast to a film in which the expression of choice appears to be glumness. Dressed in frills and smiling pleasantly, she enjoys hosting Arthur for dinner. It's not until we see some of her odd habits that we realize she may have a few cards missing from her deck.
Director James Watkins has fashioned an entertaining horror film. It's the kind of movie those who are turned off by bloody mayhem can embrace, since it's more about dread and terror than horror. We experience the house and its history through the eyes of Arthur Kipps. Watkins knows how to use sound and silence to enhance mood. Long stretches of silence will precede a loud noise that will make us jump, but those stretches of silence are filled with suspense and anticipation. We know that something -- anything -- might happen unexpectedly.
Ample credit must be given to those responsible for the film's creepy milieu. Art director Paul Ghirardani, production designer Kave Quinn, and set decorator Niamh Coulter have decorated every nook and cranny of the old manor house with Victorian furnishings, faded paintings, large carved cabinets, countless candles, cobwebs, and eerie old wind-up toys. One can almost smell the mustiness.
Rated PG-13, "The Woman in Black" takes itself seriously and never resorts to self-deprecation. The characters behave intelligently and have actual motivations. It is in the league of Jack Clayton's "The Innocents" or Robert Wise's creaky-old-house melodrama, "The Haunting." Like those earlier films, it shows what happens when a person is confronted with the supernatural and reality seems to spin wildly out of control.
In pre-World War I England, Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe), a young London lawyer with a small son, is grieving over his dead wife. His employer is fed up with Arthur's dour attitude and sends him to Yorkshire to handle the sale of an estate. Arthur is warned that this will be his last chance to distinguish himself for the firm.
Arriving after a long journey, Arthur is met and befriended by a local squire, Daily (Ciaran Hinds), though the other townsfolk are not thrilled with the visit of an outsider. Arthur is brought to the house of the deceased, which lies quite a distance from town. It is the textbook example of the House of Gloom -- grey, run down, surrounded by overgrown shrubbery, broken gates marking its entrance -- a place that immediately foreshadows bad things to come.
For much of the movie, Arthur is alone in the house -- or is he? Many of the trappings of a traditional ghost story are here -- the rainstorm, shadowy corridors, a dog barking at something not seen, an endless number of rooms, each with creepy and unsettling contents. And then there are the sightings: a darkly attired female figure, a face at a window, a fresh handprint on a window, a corpse rising from a muddy grave. Whether these are real or only figments of Arthur's imagination is left to speculation -- at least for a while.
"The Woman in Black" is from Hammer Studios, famous for a series of highly profitable Technicolor horror films made between 1957 and the early 70's. Those features always had great production values and good actors, giving them far more style than their competitors. "The Woman in Black" is true to that tradition. Instead of a collection of young and pretty 20-somethings who will be disposed of in messy ways, it boasts a first-rate cast.
Mr. Radcliffe's character is the focus of the movie and he is totally convincing as the lawyer hoping to make good while under a cloud of depression over the loss of his beloved wife. He infuses his performance with a sad determination, as if he is running a track meet with his feet encased in cement blocks. He forges on, knowing his livelihood depends on successfully delving through a myriad of papers, settling the estate, and seeing to the sale of the house. Yet he misses his wife and the life they had together. His Arthur Kipps is as far removed from Harry Potter as Hamlet is from the Nutty Professor.
Mr. Hinds's Squire Daily is on hand mostly to provide balance to the inhospitable townsfolk, who would be equally at home carrying torches up a hill in a Frankenstein movie. He prides himself on not being superstitious and refuses to believe the many deaths of children in town are anything more than unfortunate coincidence. He also provides some exposition, filling us in on what happened in that gloomy house and why Arthur will undoubtedly fail to find a local buyer. Hinds has a patrician look and never smiles. He suggests a careworn aristocrat who has seen much and prefers to trust his senses to belief in the otherworldly.
Janet McTeer appears briefly, but unforgettably, as Mrs. Daily, a woman who is either an amusing eccentric or a looney, depending on how you interpret her actions. Ms. McTeer adds bizarre contrast to a film in which the expression of choice appears to be glumness. Dressed in frills and smiling pleasantly, she enjoys hosting Arthur for dinner. It's not until we see some of her odd habits that we realize she may have a few cards missing from her deck.
Director James Watkins has fashioned an entertaining horror film. It's the kind of movie those who are turned off by bloody mayhem can embrace, since it's more about dread and terror than horror. We experience the house and its history through the eyes of Arthur Kipps. Watkins knows how to use sound and silence to enhance mood. Long stretches of silence will precede a loud noise that will make us jump, but those stretches of silence are filled with suspense and anticipation. We know that something -- anything -- might happen unexpectedly.
Ample credit must be given to those responsible for the film's creepy milieu. Art director Paul Ghirardani, production designer Kave Quinn, and set decorator Niamh Coulter have decorated every nook and cranny of the old manor house with Victorian furnishings, faded paintings, large carved cabinets, countless candles, cobwebs, and eerie old wind-up toys. One can almost smell the mustiness.
Rated PG-13, "The Woman in Black" takes itself seriously and never resorts to self-deprecation. The characters behave intelligently and have actual motivations. It is in the league of Jack Clayton's "The Innocents" or Robert Wise's creaky-old-house melodrama, "The Haunting." Like those earlier films, it shows what happens when a person is confronted with the supernatural and reality seems to spin wildly out of control.
89 of 101 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Forget Harry Potter when you watch The Woman in Black. One thing has nothing to do with the other. Daniel Radcliffe is struggling not to be typecast, to establish himself as an adult actor, not an easy accomplishment for any child star. Radcliffe does a creditable job in this movie. A classic, gothic horror story, it contains scary elements without resorting to the gory, shlocky slasher stuff of recent decades. As Arthur Kipps, the young lawyer devastated by his wife's childbed death, he has little to do other than to act wary and frightened, and appear foolhardy enough to go where no sane person ever would. This film has many strengths, among them the perfect dark, eerie sets, the cinematography that lends a sense of black and white to what is actually a color production, and enough of a mystery to make the viewer wonder what's going on in the forbidding town to which Arthur is sent to work. Along with him, we figure out, step by step, exactly what motivates the black veiled apparition, and along with him, we trust that he'll be able to put her to rest.
But there are weaknesses as well. It becomes a bit tiresome to follow Arthur through the dismal corridors of the haunted mansion, armed as he is with only a candle and an axe. Too much reliance is placed upon the sudden shocking revelation, which the audience learns to anticipate. The most effective scene takes place outside the estate, at a family crypt where Arthur encounters the distraught mother of a dead child. Most of the supporting actors have little to do other than to look forbidding and threatening, but Ciaran Hinds and Janet McTeer are superb in there roles as the grieving couple who, alone amongst their neighbors, offer some support to Arthur. The ending is a true shocker.
As is typical, the screenplay is substantially different from the novel upon which it is based, so watch the movie as a separate entity. It's worth a look. I needed a drink to settle down afterwards!
But there are weaknesses as well. It becomes a bit tiresome to follow Arthur through the dismal corridors of the haunted mansion, armed as he is with only a candle and an axe. Too much reliance is placed upon the sudden shocking revelation, which the audience learns to anticipate. The most effective scene takes place outside the estate, at a family crypt where Arthur encounters the distraught mother of a dead child. Most of the supporting actors have little to do other than to look forbidding and threatening, but Ciaran Hinds and Janet McTeer are superb in there roles as the grieving couple who, alone amongst their neighbors, offer some support to Arthur. The ending is a true shocker.
As is typical, the screenplay is substantially different from the novel upon which it is based, so watch the movie as a separate entity. It's worth a look. I needed a drink to settle down afterwards!
41 of 46 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I love gothic horror -- big cobwebbed houses, squawking ravens, rolling mists and mysterious sinister figures that are only glimpsed. "The Woman in Black" has all of those. In fact, this slow, haunting movie loads on the Edwardian ghost-story atmosphere so thick that it practically chokes you -- and while it tends to move slowly, it's beautifully creepy.
Young lawyer Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) has a life in tatters -- his career is in jeopardy, and he's still in mourning over the loss of his wife four years ago. He's sent to sort through the personal effects of Alice Drablow, who left behind a decayed mansion set in the misty marshes -- and when visiting the house, he sees a veiled woman in black.
The locals are also desperate to get rid of him, even blaming him for the death of a child who drank lye. And soon Kipps begins to understand why, as he unravels the secrets of the Drablow family, and the madwoman who lost her child long ago. With the help of his new friend Sam Daily (Ciarán Hinds), Kipps will set out to stop the Woman in Black before she claims what's dearest to him.
I haven't been too impressed with the output of the revitalized Hammer Films company. "The Woman in Black" is probably the best horror movie they've produced -- it feels like a modern version of their shadowy, gothic old movies. It's also not very scary, although director James Watkins tosses in a few jump scares (a raven, a faucet, etc).
Instead, the movie just makes you uneasy. We're constantly aware that SOMETHING is hovering over this town. But for most of the movie, we only see fleeting glimpses of the Woman and her power.
The biggest problem is that the movie moves rather slowly, especially in the first half. But for me, it's compensated for by Watkins inserting some truly unnerving scenes, like a hysterical Mrs. Daily carving into the table. And the gothic atmosphere is so heavy and dark that it practically drips from the screen -- vast mildewed houses, foggy marshes, half-forgotten letters and old photos, and a grey rainy light that seems to wash the colors from the world.
There's not a trace of Harry Potter in Daniel Radcliffe's performance here. His Arthur Kipps is a haunted, broken figure who seems strangely detached from the world around him, except when it comes to endangered children. The only problem is that Radcliffe looks a little young for the role -- whenever Arthur is with his little son, he looks more like the kid's big brother.
"The Woman in Black" is rather slow at times, but the gothic atmosphere and a strong performance from Radcliffe almost make up for that. Well, I'll gladly take it over rotten slasher remakes.
Young lawyer Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) has a life in tatters -- his career is in jeopardy, and he's still in mourning over the loss of his wife four years ago. He's sent to sort through the personal effects of Alice Drablow, who left behind a decayed mansion set in the misty marshes -- and when visiting the house, he sees a veiled woman in black.
The locals are also desperate to get rid of him, even blaming him for the death of a child who drank lye. And soon Kipps begins to understand why, as he unravels the secrets of the Drablow family, and the madwoman who lost her child long ago. With the help of his new friend Sam Daily (Ciarán Hinds), Kipps will set out to stop the Woman in Black before she claims what's dearest to him.
I haven't been too impressed with the output of the revitalized Hammer Films company. "The Woman in Black" is probably the best horror movie they've produced -- it feels like a modern version of their shadowy, gothic old movies. It's also not very scary, although director James Watkins tosses in a few jump scares (a raven, a faucet, etc).
Instead, the movie just makes you uneasy. We're constantly aware that SOMETHING is hovering over this town. But for most of the movie, we only see fleeting glimpses of the Woman and her power.
The biggest problem is that the movie moves rather slowly, especially in the first half. But for me, it's compensated for by Watkins inserting some truly unnerving scenes, like a hysterical Mrs. Daily carving into the table. And the gothic atmosphere is so heavy and dark that it practically drips from the screen -- vast mildewed houses, foggy marshes, half-forgotten letters and old photos, and a grey rainy light that seems to wash the colors from the world.
There's not a trace of Harry Potter in Daniel Radcliffe's performance here. His Arthur Kipps is a haunted, broken figure who seems strangely detached from the world around him, except when it comes to endangered children. The only problem is that Radcliffe looks a little young for the role -- whenever Arthur is with his little son, he looks more like the kid's big brother.
"The Woman in Black" is rather slow at times, but the gothic atmosphere and a strong performance from Radcliffe almost make up for that. Well, I'll gladly take it over rotten slasher remakes.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
it's something different
It's not a bad movie. It just has a tendency to move kinda slow but it will have you thinking by the end. Read more
Published 8 days ago by J Xtreme
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Grand Ghost Movie
I loved this supernatural ghost thriller. The storyline was fantastic and the ending a super shocker that totally got me by surprise. Daniel Radcliffe does an excellent job! Read more
Published 10 days ago by Honest Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
nah, just ok.
I am giving this 3 stars just to be fair, I honestly don't think it is scary, but the people I watched it with they think it is, so that is why the 3 stars rate. Read more
Published 15 days ago by MONTYX
5.0 out of 5 stars
scary movie
this is a fine film I never watched any of the harry potter movies so I didn't know if danial radcliffe was any good. Read more
Published 17 days ago by Cummings
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Woman in Black is a great movie
The Woman in Black is a wonderful film, artfully and eerily done, with a great cast.
Daniel Radcliffe's performance was top rate and has no relation to his Harry Potter... Read more
Daniel Radcliffe's performance was top rate and has no relation to his Harry Potter... Read more
Published 17 days ago by Karin A. Wilkinson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Differant from the average
I would recommend this movie! I personally thought it was very good and unique!! It managed to keep my attention throught the entire movie!! Especially the twist at the end!
Published 19 days ago by Knevarah1:)
2.0 out of 5 stars
I only the movie because Harry Potter stars in it.
But before I saw it I thought it would be intense horror. I guess the British scare easily because this type of horror is nothing to Americans. Read more
Published 19 days ago by Taquisha Flagg
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good movie
I really enjoyed this movie. It took a while the get my attention but by the end I was jumping at every noise.
Published 21 days ago by alarmclocktalker
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Woman in Black
Loved the movie! I love movies involving the supernatural....this was a great movie. Full of surprises and scares around every corner. Wonderfully done.
Published 24 days ago by David
1.0 out of 5 stars
Might've been a good movie....
Too bad I never got to watch it. Amazon instant video sucks! I have a high speed internet connection and could not get this video to play worth a dime. Read more
Published 25 days ago by GoodBroly
