The Woman in Black: movie review (+trailer)

The rest of the villagers are downright hostile and try to prevent him from going to the ominous-looking Eel Marsh House, which is cut off from the mainland during high tide. As everyone other than Arthur and Sam knows, Eel Marsh House is haunted by a vengeful spirit, a woman in – you guessed it – black. The mere fact of Arthur's presence seems to provoke her into murdering people in the village. (The mechanism here is central to the story and is never quite clear. It's as though Arthur is somehow bringing her back with him from the house – or something.)

Director James Watkins ("Eden Lake") uses all the traditional tricks – creaking sounds, doors mysteriously locked and unlocked, lights snuffed out, and the rest. To those, he adds devices more identified with the last decade or two of Japanese and Korean horror films and their American remakes ("The Ring," "Dark Water," "The Grudge"): glowering figures just glimpsed in the background when Arthur is looking the other way, indistinct black forms rising from nowhere, children's crayon art gone bad. Mostly it's effective, but he overuses the "sudden loud noise" shock tactic, and he crams in so much that the plot becomes less and less clear as we go along.

Radcliffe's fidgety performance is convincing, and he does come across as an adult, though a very young one. He wears stubble throughout. Perhaps Arthur doesn't trust himself with a razor so close to his jugular or maybe this was a fashion of the period. But likeliest it's to make Radcliffe look older.

The project was doubtless shaped to attract its star's adolescent and preadolescent female fan base. Many of them at my screening not only screamed numerous times right on cue but almost as many times without a cue. Grade: B- (Rated PG-13 for thematic material and violence/disturbing images.)

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