Some Good Atmosphere but Not Enough Scares

Rating: Null/10 (26 February 2012)

The Woman in Black (2012)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Hammer Films' latest about young lawyer Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) who travels to a small village to close up on an estate but not realizing that the town is haunted by a vengeful ghost who had her son stolen from her years earlier. Now, every time someone sees the woman their child dies from mysterious circumstances. THE WOMAN IN BLACK is almost a good horror film but there were just a few too many flaws for me to completely the enjoy the film. I think there are quite a few good moments sprinkled throughout the movie but in the end there just wasn't enough scares for me to give the film a better mark. I think director James Watkins does a pretty good job with the visual style of the movie and he also manages to build up some interesting atmosphere. The film is clearly trying to be a throwback to those old ghost and Gothic movies from the 1950s and there were countless times where you could feel the fog and atmosphere breathing down your neck. The one issue I had is that the movie was never really scary. Perhaps we've just witnessed too many ghost stories over the past few years but the old-fashioned scare tactics here never really work. The director certainly can build up the jump sequence but I never felt the pay-off was there and several times instead of scares we get those loud "jump" scenes where something loud happens and to me this isn't a scare. The performances in the film were all pretty good with Radcliffe doing a nice job with his character as he's able to give it some depth. Both Ciaran Hinds and Janet McTeer offer up fine support as well. THE WOMAN IN BLACK has a fairly effective, if predictable ending, that almost saves the movie. There's no doubt that those who appreciate those Gothic films of the 50s should be entertained for nostalgia alone but in the end the film still needed a tad bit more.