Certification. 15
Running Time. 1 hour 35 mins
Director. James Watkins
Cast. Ciarán Hinds, Janet McTeer, Daniel Radcliffe.
Rating. 55%
In his first role since the conclusion of the Harry Potter series, The Woman In Black sees Daniel Radcliffe star as a young widowed solicitor, Arthur Kripps. Radcliffe's subdued portrayal of Kripps creates a sombre character with the haunted eyes of an eternal mourner.
Dame Susan Hill's Victorian ghost story published in 1982 has, over the years, been adapted for radio, television and stage. In fact, The Woman In Black has been running in London's West End since 1989, making the stage adaptation the second longest-running non-musical play in West End history, after The Mousetrap.
The film marvels in the eerie Eel Marsh House setting and elicits obvious comparison with other ghostly gothic literature, the likes of Henry James' The Turn Of The Screw, Bram Stoker's Dracula and Oscar Wilde's The Portrait Of Dorian Grey.
Director James Watkins establishes a sinister opening where Arthur is universally subjected to unexplained hostility from the local residents of Crythin Gifford. The director then elevates the tension with creeping camerawork, foreboding shadows, extended silences, creaking floorboards, macabre wind-up toys and unsettling dusty dolls.
With little gore, but nonetheless chilling, The Woman In Black will leave you on edge from start to finish.
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