Far from the masterpiece it could have been

Rating: 5/10 (3 February 2012)

The all purpose point of a horror movie is to make you forget the reality around you, and make you buy into the alternate world it has created. It must do this using originality, or an improvement on an idea, because in a horror film, predictability is its worst enemy. It's is a deathly balancing act of reeling you in and terrorizing you, while not losing focus with the viewer. This is extremely difficult to do, and is the reason why there are so few horror masterpieces and an abundance of failures.
You are presented with Arthur Kipp, played by Daniel Radcliffe, who is a young lawyer, still struck with grief after his wife died in childbirth. He is on the verge of being fired, and his boss gives him one last job to prove his dedication to the firm. This last job is filing paperwork for a recently deceased woman in a unkempt mansion. After immediately being snubbed by the locals, he begins uncovering a ghost story.
Unfortunately, Woman in Black is a failure. It falls trap to the majority of horror movie clichés, making it anodyne and gimmicky the point of anonymity. It is a film defined by what it is ultimately capable of doing, and nothing more. And what it is capable of doing, again, falls short. You are hit with an array of boom-bang-scream scares, and plenty of disfigured faces, but nothing progressive.
The storyline is definitely intriguing, but the shallow way it's carried out hints at budget cuts to increase the profit ratio. Daniel Radcliffe had his work cut out for him breaking the mold set by his decade long stint has Harry Potter, and the screenplay doesn't even give him enough time to flex his acting chops and show us what he's really got. It feels more like a showcase.
Ultimately, greatness eludes this film. The story feels watered down, and the characters are dry and undeveloped with no clear motives behind their actions, leaving you questioning everything they do. Despite plenty of tweaks and trinkets to catch the discerning eye, this film can, and will be easily forgotten. With a fresh sounding story, the talent of Ciarán Hinds, and the ability to show the world what Daniel Radcliffe is capable of, this film wastes it all, and is far from the masterpiece it could have been.