Scary but somewhat generic

Rating: 7/10 (24 March 2019)

Produced by a resurrected Hammer Film Productions, The Woman in Black is a frightening ghost story in the gothic tradition of that studio's mid-century horror films. Although it trades the lurid colors of those earlier features for a bleak, subdued, desaturated palette, it mirrors their relatively high production values with solid art direction and lavish, detailed period sets and costumes. Effectively creepy, The Woman in Black relies heavily on sound to draw the protagonist into dangerous situations, and shock the audience with loud noise scares. In spite of this last generic and occasionally confusing tactic (it is sometimes unclear which of these latter sounds the characters can hear and which are part of the non-diegetic musical score) the entire soundscape does enhance the film's ominous atmosphere and allow for the substitution of images obscured by dark or fog for less mysterious or more costly visual effects.