He's not Harry Potter anymore...

Rating: 8/10 (14 April 2013)

Daniel Radcliffe will probably be remembered throughout film history as the boy who lived- or rather the casual Londoner who played him. Here, he makes his first big-screen comeback after the finale to the Harry Potter series starring as Arthur Kipps, a grieving lawyer sent to Eel Marsh House, an old manor surrounded by misty marshland, to sort the papers of Alice Drablow, the recently deceased owner of the house. But while there he discovers other documents -passionate letters written by Drablow's deranged sister, mostly centred around her son. The film is one of the best of the past few years in terms of making you jump out of your seat- while Kipps rummages around the house he sees sudden flashes of The Woman In Black- the sister Jennet Humphrys' ghost- which frighten him out of his wits and do the same to the viewer. While physical horror is reduced to one scene- a girl that has drunk lye vomiting blood- it certainly delivers in every other department that a good horror film should. It's psychologically disturbing, it haunts you even after it's over, it has a horrifying twist at the end- fans of The Sixth Sense will certainly find it enjoyable. On to Radcliffe. He more-or-less is forced to carry the film in terms of acting; he is the only one in the house most of the time and so is the only character to react to everything that happens there, and for the most part his fear, and the desperation that comes from it, is convincing. He is also good enough to make you forget about Harry Potter and focus on his character, which he could easily not have done had his portrayal of Arthur Kipps been unmemorable. However, he seems unrealistically young to play this part- the book character is meant to be a middle-aged man, and this Arthur Kipps looks like he's only just left high- school, making the viewer feel as if Radcliffe was only cast to remind people that he's still around. Aside from a bit of bad casting, a slightly cliché script and the fact that it rather loses its impact once you see it a second time, The Woman in Black is a disturbing and shocking film that is certainly worth watching late at night with a bowl of popcorn (and if you scare easily, some pictures of cute puppies to take your mind off it), and so I give it 8/10.