When it comes to classic gothic horror films, few would argue that Hammer‘s contributions have been some of the most relevant in the genre’s history. Seeing its heyday in the 1960s and ’70s, Hammer was establishing Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster and the Mummy as British horror icons while Universal was making these creatures household names in America. While Hammer has been mostly dormant for the past few decades, it’s signature style of creepiness has been resurrected with The Woman in Black.
If he’s looking to break any potential Harry Potter spell, Daniel Radcliffe picked the perfect film as he plays the Jonathan Harker-like lawyer Arthur Kipps. When the still-grieving Kipps ventures to a small village to investigate the estate of a recently deceased woman, he soon finds himself in the middle of a horrific mystery involving inexplicable deaths and the perceived madness of some of the towns most prominent citizens. And the more time he spends in the deceased woman’s house, the creepier things get.
Much like last year’s frightful haunted house flick Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, The Woman in Black feels much like one of the old Hammer or Roger Corman films (or an Edgar Allan Poe tale), especially considering that heartache, mental instability and the inexplicable deaths of children are the source of the horrors. And for some reason (perhaps his perpetual dwelling on his deceased wife, who died while giving birth to their son), Kipps seems to have no fear of death, at least until what started out as feint shadows and disembodied sounds progresses into full-on poltergeist activity and other overtly ominous happenings.
As the name implies, a ghostly woman in a black veil is the source of the film’s terror. And once Kipps has encountered her, it seems that he carries her curse (a somewhat Freddy Krueger-like determination to punish parents by possessing their children to indulge in fatal activities). It’s not until he realizes that his own young son, en route to visit Kipps in the village, is in danger of becoming part of the deranged woman’s curse that Kipps sets out to break it. And once he finds something to live for again, his determination to bring closure to the black-veiled woman’s own tragedy inadvertently brings about simultaneous loss and closure for Kipps himself. But it’s this type of irony and tragedy that makes The Woman in Black an apt successor to the Hammer films of old.
The Woman in Black. Directed by James Watkins. Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Ciarán Hinds, Janet McTeer and Liz White. Rated PG-13. www.womaninblack.com.
Review by Jonathan Williams