Woman in Black, The : Movie Review


Daniel Radcliffe ably sheds his Harry Potter persona very nearly instantaneously in "The Woman in Black," a shiveringly handsome adaptation of the 1983 novel by Susan Hill. Pitting one unwelcome visitor against a ghostly mansion of horrors is a formula older than movies themselves, but director James Watkins (he of 2008's chilling "Eden Lake") exhibits such an adroit know-how for scaring the pants off his audience that it doesn't matter. With just a couple of exceptions where he tips his hand a little too obviously toward spelled-out manipulation, Watkins keeps things absorbingly creepy in a low-key fashion until just the right moments when he's ready to pounce. When he does, watch out. It has been a while since a film caused the hair on my legs to stand up on end. "The Woman in Black" achieves this more than once.

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Author : Dustin Putman