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Summary: You think that a movie can't REALLY haunt you.?
Review: After viewing this movie you will change your mind for ever BELIVE ME
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Summary: A modern take on the classic victorian ghost story.
Review: I love this movie. No gore or any graphic content and still by far the scariest movie I have ever seen. Beautiful costumes & sets, excellent writing. The woman who plays the ghost is great. The writing, particularly the way the central mystery unfolds, is entertaining & suspensful--not your average horror flick. Probably too intense for kids under 13.
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Summary: Dont expect.....
Review: ...blood, gore, monsters, jumping out of your seat nonsense. Just expect a slow, creeping sense of dread and you'll love this film. One of the few films that really scared me. Fabulous.
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Summary: Genuinely spine chilling
Review: This is one of the creepiest, spookiest ghost stories ever filmed. Adapted from Susan Hill's book of the same title, the tale centres on a young lawyer sent to settle the estate of a deceased old lady. At the funeral, he sees what he thinks is another mourner, a woman dressed all in black. When he mentions this to others however, he gets a strange reaction and quickly realises all is not as it seems. Whenever this woman appears, so local legend says, a child will die. From then on, things become more and more tense as he becomes haunted by this mysterious woman.
This production uses no special effects or fancy sets and to be honest, I think it would have detracted from the film if there had been. Instead, the viewer is left to concentrate purely on the story which becomes increasingly tense as it develops. There are several moments that will make you jump or send a shiver through you. Watch it alone with the lights off if you dare!
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Summary: You can't please everyone
Review: Horror, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. I waited years to see The Exorcist, and when I finally got round to it I couldn't see what all the fuss was about. The Omen scared me more. Some people think Ring 2 was better than Ring (or the remake was better than the original). The end is listless, as they say. If you watch THe Woman In Black expecting to see 'the scariest film ever made', you may well be dissapointed; such a term is too oblique, like 'the funniest film ever made' or 'the goriest film ever made'. Most people will have different views.
Like the original Lathe Of Heaven TV movie, also a production with a huge word-of-mouth reputation now available on DVD,The Woman In Black should be viewed with respect to the limits within which it was made; nor should it be compared to other, different types of horror film. Viewed like this, TWIB is certainly a classic of its kind. Writer Nigel Kneale, a legend in certain circles, again demonstrates such ability as to confirm his status as one of Britains best genre scribes. Together with director Herbert Wilcox, he constructs the narrative virtually as a series of peaks and troughs, with deceptively slow segments building to pivotal moments of suspense and fear, then back again until the grim finale.
The film is well acted by its little known cast, and the production values are impressive for a British TV movie, with the 1920s atmosphere convincing and the scenes at the house on the marsh genuinely creepy to look at. The only real flaw, as noted elsewhere, is that the film's story is fairly predictable, and much of it is related through exposition, so you need to pay close attention to what's being said for maximum impact. The look and feel of the film is in fact similar to Dracula, oddly closest to the Werner Herzog/Klaus Kinski version - the ill-fated traveller on official business, the farewell to the family who will ultimately become involved, the mysterious client, the 'you shouldn't go there, sir' attitude of the locals, etc, so it's not surprising to get a feeling of deja vu.
But if you can suspend the feeling of familiarity, TWIB delivers. You still may disagree, but watch it with respect rather than expectation and you'll give it a fighting chance to impress.
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Summary: A tale of dread
Review: I first saw this film when it was shown on UK television in 1989.
Not having read the book, I watched what I thought would be an average, made for tv, ghost yarn. How pleasant,therefore, nearly fifteen years later to be able to pen my thoughts about what is one of the most chilling and effective films that the genre has ever produced.
Set in the 1920s, a young solicitor - Arthur Kidd (played by Adrian Rawlins), is sent up from London to settle the estate of a recently deceased elderly woman. His destination is a small UK seaside town, just outside of which is the house of the deceased woman. His mission is less than enthusiastically received by the locals, who for the most part avoid the house in question like the plague. Set in salt marshes, the house which is called Eel Marsh House, is only accessible via a traitorous causeway at low tide. Once there, he learns of a high incidence of child mortality in the town, and starts to see the mysterious and frightening figure of a woman dressed entirely in black, of whom the locals are fearful and loathe to even discuss. Are the two connected? You bet your life they are, and when Arthur Kidd saves a young child in the market place, the hatred of this mysterious and terrible woman in black is then directed at him.
From then on, beset by strange events and terrible noises from both inside and outside the house, Arthur's sanity starts to deteriorate...
The film works to such terrible effect due to its simplicity. SFX are convincing but minimal. The Woman In Black only makes four appearences throughout the film, each one is increasingly scary though. I can recall few films, where a ghost has been depicted as so utterly evil and malevolent. The black shape when depicted on screen just seems to suck in the light around it and palpably emanates hatred. Anyone who has seen this year's 'The Grudge' may see some similarities in the depiction of the ghosts but 'The Woman In Black' is the more frightening. The film has a scene involving an appearence of the ghost to Arthur Kidd, which just flies off the Richter Scale for utter fear.
Adrian Rawlins is superb as Kidd, portraying him as a gentle, loving family man, and mildly cocky young solicitor who becomes increasingly distressed and unstable, as the events surrounding him become ever more unpleasant and terrifying.
Those of a nervous disposition or who are easily scared, are not recommended to watch this because of its high octane terror content. Equally if you are expecting a gore fest then forget it. This film is a supremely chilling experience to watch, and has THAT scene in it which will make your hair stand up on end.
A friend of mine recently viewed the dvd on my recommendation and this is what he had to say about it:
"Although there was only 2 scary scenes in there it's actually got in my head, you'll probably laugh but I was actually scared to go to bed last night and so I stayed online with my girl friend until 4 am. I had to wake up at 9 am today so I was exhausted getting up!
Also when I went to bed I didn't dare walk across the room in darkness so I put my TV on standby and had my head under the covers cause I couldn't get her face out of my head. There was also another incident downstairs where I made myself a coffee and somebody had turned all the lights out, so I almost had a panic attack and ran to the light switch.
Also I showed some of it to my sister's boyfriend and it freaked him out. I read on a review about the bed scene so I was expecting it (although I didn't expect it to be quite as it was) I dread to think what it would have done if I wasn't expecting it.
Oh and a colleague at called me a big kid at work today cause she asked why I looked so tired and on edge and I told her."
I do like my footnotes on these reviews, so lets not make an exception here... For afficiendos of 'The Woman In Black' there is supposed to be a slightly longer version (101 mins I believe) which apparently shows a fifth appearence of the ghost through a window? I have not actually seen this but this version is reputed to be around on earlier vhs releases of the film.
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Summary: Good film!
Review: What makes this film so good is that it has a certain atmosphere to it that makes for a few spooky moments. Overall the film isn't any thing great, but you're not expecting big scares from this English made-for-TV production, which is why I'm giving it praise.
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Summary: Intelligent, atmospheric horror fans: GET YOUR HANDS ON THIS
Review: This British TV movie is unfortunately out of print, but for all of you who prefer intelligent, old-fashioned horror that favors atmosphere and psychological tension over blood and gore, if you have to beg, cheat, steal, and lie, locate a copy of this film!
The story involves a 1920s English solicitor who settles the estate of a recently-widowed woman at the late woman's home. The house is located in a marshy locale that, during high tide, is inaccessible from the main road. The townspeople refuse to go near the place. This all creates a wonderfully creepy setting.
This is a ghost story, but to reveal the circumstances of why the ghost is there would be spoiling much of the initial viewing enjoyment.
There is a wonderful, chilling scene that happens over and over again that is copied almost directly from 'The Innocents.' (It's more of an homage to that great film than a ripoff). In fact this film is a lot like 'The Innocents.' The English setting, the isolated mansion, it's all there.
Fans of 'The Innocents,' 'The Others,' 'The Uninvited' and other true horror (defined in the first sentence) will love this one.
Is it disturbingly scary (a la 'The Exorcist')? No. But is it chilling and eery and fantastically made? Yes.
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Summary: Just another ghost yarn..
Review: Like several others, I was intrigued by everything about this movie. The spinetingling reviews, the movie's premise, and that it belonged to the reliable English Victorian horror genre. The fact that it was out of print, with even bootlegged versions selling for around 80-100 US Dollars convinced me that it was a sure bet, and I bought it. Having acquired it, and having elevated it to the very top of my movie collection, I decided to save it for the perfect watching occassion, savoring the anticipation. That perfect night was yesterday, a cold, windy night.
<SPOILER ALERT>
Watching it, my reverence quickly changed to feeling let down. I couldn't believe that I was being told so early into the movie, that the woman in black was a ghost (by her various and sudden appearances and disappearances). Once that was established, the course of the movie was pretty well charted and guessable. A couple more visions, objects being displaced without human intervention, mist and fog, etc. In other words, the usual ghost story formula.
Not once did I find myself scared, or even creeped out. It was just an old show that did not even seem to try or want to be different. I simply could not fathom how the woman in black was supposed to be scary. Because she had a sallow complexion and staring eyes? And you actually get to see her close up just twice in the entire movie, for about 10 seconds in all! Every other time, she's just a silhoutte figure standing way off in the distance.
The ending was not completely unexpected, but certainly a change from the rest of the formula. Despite that, it couldn't redeem the rest of the movie.
</SPOILER ALERT>
Let me assure you that I am not a perpetual cynic/skeptic. I do find certain movies creepy. Movies where imagery is used to rake the viewer's imagination and make them dredge up their own worst fears, rather than spell out in certain terms what it is you are supposed to be scared of. The 2 movies that made an impact on me were the Blair Witch Project and The Ring.
So if you share the same likes, I would recommend that you don't spend your hard earned money on this vastly over-rated movie, unless you can find it for under $20. It is a fine movie to watch in the BBC "Mystery" series vein. That's about as scary as it got for me. It has fallen off its pedestal, and will never occupy the place I had reserved for it. Every time I reflect on this movie, I fully agree with another IMDB reviewer who wrote that The Woman in Black was unfortunately, The Woman who Lacked.
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Summary: Brilliant haunted tale
Review: Nigel Kneale is one of the great screenwriters in cinema history (Quatermass, etc.). This simple, very finely calibrated and filigreed film is in the greatest tradition of story-telling, but is clean and modern in it's technique even while telling a period story. There is one shot that I actually had chills, which I haven't had watching a film since I was a child. The highly sophisticated will notice a debt to Murnau's "Nosferatu" in the story line. This may be a better film. For those who are addicted to the character-less destructions of most modern Hollywood horror, you won't get your fix here. You might however discover something greater. Anyone who enjoyed "Sixth Sense" or "The Others", this is superior, the same genre successfully achieved without blatant cleverness. I can't think of a better ghost story; only "The Haunting" (Robert Wise) can compare. Other than that, it stinks.
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