Falls Flat

Rating: 3/10 (5 February 2012)

The most interesting thing I found about this movie was the filming technique: A throw-back to the days of "Dark Shadows" and 1960's vampire movies. In fact, I was waiting for the vampiresses to enter a scene wearing the typical early 70's sheer long nightgown...it would have at least caused my eyebrows to raise where not much in this film did. In a film wherein the editing mistakes are evident throughout and the direction is less than acceptable, the filming technique is good...helped me to sit through this less than "horror" flick.
The best description I can come up for "The Woman in Black is that it is like a trailer funhouse at the local carnival. The "scary stuff" is old and stale. The screams are the same old Banshee screams we've heard in movies for seventy-five years. The plot is an update of the original Frankenstein-ish movies of long ago, with very little variation in plot- line, including the riotess towns-people blaming the new smart guy for their problems. Having said that, the two male leads do a good job in holding the audience even though the script and direction were inferior. Without the talent of these two, it would be a movie fit for a drive-in second feature in 1971.
If "The Woman in Black" is a measure of this generation's "horror" movie, we need to send them back to school and teach them how to create, not just copy someone else's work and pass the test, because this film did not pass any test nor was it creative.