Harry Potter's Scariest Adventure Yet

Rating: 10/10 (13 November 2012)

In Hollywood, there are three types of ghosts. There are the invisible people who can't be touched and are usually played for laughs, there are the murderous serial-killing fiends who cause mass homicides and then there are the demonic forces whose sole purpose is the misfortune and torture of the living without any long-term plans. It is so rare to have a decent haunted house movie that actually knows how to scare and terrify the viewer. "The Woman In Black" is one of those movies. It is what a decent haunted house movie should be: creepy setting, strong characters, engaging plot and an unsolved mystery with some suspense. It stars Daniel Radcliffe as a lawyer barely over the loss of his wife. He is already haunted by her death and the responsibility of his son when his firm sends him to secure the papers of a deceased client. The job requires he travel to the distant isolated village of Crithin Grifford in Northern England by train, encountering the creepy superstitious people and eccentrics along the way. The movie is thick in atmosphere and the plot moves briskly as he wonders if the isolated house he is located could be haunted – a premise we are sure is happening even if his character is not. The movie is far more scary and unnerving than the tedious voyeuristic style of the "Paranormal Activity" movies. This is a movie reliant on its setting as much as its ghosts to be scary because we know Radcliffe's character is trapped in the house by the rising tide and can't leave as easy as other characters in other movies may have. His eyes and expressions relate the fear he is having in the location. Unlike "Paranormal Activity," "Woman In Black" is carried by a plot involving town mystery where none of the children in town live long to adulthood; so now we have not just a ghost story by one wrapped inside a mystery. It's the type of horror movie we rarely ever see. Bottom line: the movie is scary as hell without being as condescending, tedious or confusing as "Paranormal Activity."