Harry Potter and the Ghostly Drivel.

Rating: 2/10 (23 September 2012)

Because of the excellent job she did with Kick-Ass, I'd forgiven screenwriter Jane Goldman for the absolute drivel that was Stardust, but The Woman in Black has just put her in my bad books again, a more predictable, pedestrian, derivative and utterly boring ghost story it would be hard to envisage. Likewise, director James Watkins, who impressed me so with his superb debut Eden lake, hasn't exactly gone up in my estimations.
For those who grew up with Radcliffe as Harry Potter—a demographic most likely still fairly unfamiliar with the horror genre—this might succeed in coming across as both original and scary, but trust me when I say that everything in The Woman In Black has been done many times before, and often much better. In particular, I was reminded of Ghost Story (1981) and Dark Water (2002), although the tricks employed by Watkins to scare his oblivious young viewers have been pilfered from numerous other films. As for the dumb ending.... always hold on to a young child's hand when on a station platform—it's as simple as that!
The fact that this nonsense was filmed under the Hammer banner makes me want to cry.