'The Woman in Black' Movie Review

Legendary British production company Hammer Films returned in 2008 from a nearly three-decade hibernation, but its impact thus far has been minimal, with two of its 21st century entries (Wake Wood and The Resident) going straight to video, one (Beyond the Rave) releasing free online and the other (Let Me In) tanking at the box office. Now comes Hammer's widest release of the bunch, The Woman in Black, a film that, perhaps not coincidentally, is also the first of the group to return to Hammer's heyday forte: Gothic period pieces.

In the early 20th century, a young London lawyer named Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) is tasked with traveling to the small coastal town of Crythin Gifford to handle the affairs of recently deceased widow Alice Drablow. Perpetually depressed since his wife died four years earlier giving birth to his son Joseph, Arthur is given one last chance to prove with worth at work by searching through the piles of paperwork Alice left behind to make sure the firm has her final will.

When he arrives in Crythin Gifford, Arthur finds the townsfolk cold and eager to send him back to London. They keep their children cooped up inside and are evasive when he inquires about Alice's home, Eel Marsh House. Wealthy local Sam Daily (Ciarán Hinds) takes pity on him and invites him to stay in his mansion with his wife. Sam explains that the townspeople are superstitious and believe that Eel Marsh House is haunted by a woman dressed in black who brings death wherever she goes.

Undaunted, Arthur travels to the secluded home in the marsh, but he's unprepared for what he finds. The legend, it turns out, is true, and it soon becomes more urgent for him to comb through Alice's belongings not to determine her last will and testament, but to uncover the secret behind the ghostly woman and end her reign of terror.

It's surprising that, given Hammer's horror pedigree, the company has yet to (from what I can recollect) attempt a ghost story. While The Woman in Black is new ground as far as content is concerned, the period setting and creaky Gothic trappings channel Hammer's golden age of the late '50s and '60s. Unfortunately, it's not as groundbreaking as those movies were back then. Rather, it's a well-made but overly familiar retread of standard haunted house tropes.

The most striking aspect of the story is the setting: the decaying mansion situated in the middle of a vast marsh, accessible only by a narrow causeway that periodically floods, leaving whoever's unlucky enough to be in the house literally stuck on an island. Director James Watkins, whose Eden Lake was a much more edgy affair than this PG-13 tale, captures the eerie, picturesque surroundings exquisitely, imbuing the film with a classic creepy feel.

But the story doesn't run with the setting as it should. The mystery is shallow and predictable (and yet somewhat nonsensical), the plot points are overly familiar for anyone who's seen their share of haunted house pics, and the finale leaves you cold and unfulfilled. The scares, meanwhile, are relentless -- to a fault. Rarely does a scene pass without an ominous figure in the background, a loud sound or an unexplained movement to make us jump out of our seats. It all lacks the restraint necessary to allow the inherent creepiness of the surroundings to work its magic and ends up making the movie feel like its trying too hard by filling space with scenes whose sole purpose is to scare rather than scenes to deepen the story. What we're left with is an attractive film that's solidly executed but nothing we haven't seen done better elsewhere.

• Acting: B- (The cast, led by Radcliffe, is earnest and believable.)
• Direction: B- (Picturesque but with uneven scares.)
• Script: C- (Too many ghostly clichés, too few plot twists.)
• Gore/Effects: C+ (Modest gore; thankfully doesn't overdo the CGI.)
• Overall: C+ (Entertaining but all-too-familiar ghost story.)

The Woman in Black is directed by James Watkins and is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for thematic material and violence/disturbing images. Release date: February 3, 2012.

Disclosure: The distributor provided free access to this movie for review purposes. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.