A Gothic Ghost and Haunting Story, with Daniel Radcliffe

Rating: 7/10 (5 May 2012)

"The Woman in Black" (2012) is a Gothic suspense-horror thriller, directed by James Watkins (writer and director of Eden Lake), that passes in the early twentieth century, in England: it is the story of a lawyer, Arthur Kipps (Radcliffe), who lost his women in the birth of his boy, now age 7, and that are depressed ever since.
After the death of an elderly woman who owned a secluded mansion in the middle of a marsh, in a rural English town, he has the job to arrange the paperwork, in order to sell the house and moves there to deal with it.
From here begins the story that unfolds from the occurrence of sinister events, and the villagers strange reactions, who fear a superstition that curses the village.
The film is well done, visually, has a sad and gloomy, dark atmosphere typical of Gothic-themed movies. There's no abuse of special effects or blood, and the film relies more on the atmosphere of suspense, until the end of the movie.
I just noticed a inconsistency in the filming, when two characters are driving, in a open car, and the hair of the characters do not move - after that I noticed no other gross errors.
The music, which only appears discrete and pertinently, and the sound effects are good, and helps to compose the general atmosphere.
What stands out in this movie is the performance of Radcliffe, beginning to get off of his eternal role of Harry Potter: his acting in the movie are very good.
The main story unfolds gradually as the secrets of the house, the legend and its ghosts are explained until the end of a film that follows and the Gothic style ending.
Just as a note, the film is based on the book by Susan Hill, written in 1982, which has the same name, and has the same story, but with modifications in the sequence of events and the ending.
Overall is a good movie to pass the time, being a good classic tale of Gothic horror-thriller, related to ghosts and haunting, but nothing that really stands out among the many films that exist.
My score: 6.8 / 10.0.