"The Woman in Black" shines with old-school thrills and chills

Rating: 7/10 (16 March 2015)

The 2012 British horror film "The Woman in Black" (PG-13, 1:35) has a diverse heritage. The basic story first appeared in a 1983 horror novella by Susan Hill. In 1987, the story became a stage play which is still in production and has become the second longest-running non-musical play in London's West End (behind "The Mousetrap"). A made-for-TV version debuted on British television on Christmas Eve 1989, but made minor changes to the story with which the novella's author took exception. The story was even more significantly changed for the 2012 big-screen version. But the feature film's rich pedigree goes beyond the story's adaptations and changes to the original version. "The Woman in Black" is an old-fashioned ghost story which uses low-tech thrills and chills to maximum effect.
The big-screen adaptation eliminates and condenses many of the novella's details to produce a tighter story. In his first post-Harry Potter film role, Daniel Radcliff stars as Arthur Kipps, an early-20th century English lawyer whose wife (Sophia Stuckey) died in childbirth, leaving him to raise his now 4-year-old son, Joseph (Misha Handley), as a single parent, but with the help of a nanny (Jessica Raine). Arthur's employer tells the still-grieving and ever-morose young man that his job is in serious jeopardy if he fails at his new assignment – settling the estate of a recently-deceased recluse named Alice Drablow. On the train to the small northeastern English town of Crythin Gifford, he meets a resident of the town named Sam Daily (Ciarán Hinds, also a veteran of the Harry Potter franchise) who offers him a ride into town. Arthur's interactions with the locals suggest that this is either the least welcoming town in all of England, or that the townsfolk have a personal problem with Arthur or maybe a bit of both.
Mrs. Drablow lived in the large, spooky-looking Eel Marsh House, a mansion that is only accessible by a long, narrow road which disappears every day at high tide. Mrs. Drablow was a widow whose adopted son drowned in the surrounding marsh years earlier, eventually leading her to hang herself in grief. Her house is filled with piles of papers that Arthur must sort through before the estate can be settled and the house can be put on the market. These papers reveal that Alice Drablow's sister (the boy's birth mother who lost custody to her sister and blamed the sister for the boy's death) was a tortured and possibly mentally-ill woman who the locals say haunts the house. They say when someone sees her ghost, a child dies. Arthur doesn't believe in all that (nor does Mr. Daily, who befriends and helps the young attorney), but there's definitely SOMETHING going on. The creeks and thumps that Arthur hears in the old house turn into crashes and screams – and the increasingly frequent appearance of a female figure dressed in funeral garb. Bad things do start to happen in the local area. Arthur has his hands full trying to do his job, figuring out what is happening in Crythin Gifford and stopping it – and doing all this before his son's nanny brings Joseph to the town to meet up with his dad at the end of the week, as Arthur had arranged before he left home.
"The Woman in Black" is a throw-back, both in setting and in tone – but in a good way. The Edwardian England backdrop separates the audience from their modern horror film expectations and the unsettling old-school sights and sounds can still produce effective scares in the 21st century. The movie is scary, but it's also dark and tense, much like "The Others" in 2001. Radcliff is convincingly troubled and carries the film very effectively. Hinds is equally troubled, but sympathetic and helpful. The actors playing the residents of Crythin Gifford make for a solid ensemble, their emotions ranging from callous indifference to frightened anger to extreme grief. The titular specter is so frightening and omnipresent that you may end up looking for her in the dark corners of your house. All this adds up to a believable story and a mystery that you'll want to see solved – plus an ending that you'll likely find both horrifying and touching.