[MOVIE REVIEW] The Woman In Black

THE WOMAN IN BLACK
-In Theaters: February 3, 2012
-Runtime: 95 minutes
-Rated: PG-13 for thematic material, disturbing images, and children committing suicide
-Plot Summary: Arthur Kipps (played by Daniel Radcliffe) is a lawyer sent to a creepy town to gather the paperwork from a house out in the marsh. While attempting to get the affairs in order so that the house can be sold, Arthur sees (you guessed it) a woman in black who keeps vanishing and reappearing, haunting him. Afterwords, kids start killing themselves in the town, and everyone blames Arthur for going to the house when they warned him not to. Eventually, Arthur decides he needs to reunite the spirit woman with her dead son to save all the lost souls. It…doesn’t work out for anyone really.

Review Grade: C

– Positives: The acting is all quite good. The scenery, costumes, direction…all great. Daniel Radcliffe was perfect for this role. Those who were curious of his acting abilities outside of Harry Potter should know that he does have the range to at least do horror movies. Oh, and the twin dogs were a pleasant surprise. The crazy wife was also a good character.

– Negatives: The scares are pretty skin deep. The movie mostly relies on “Did you see that? Did you hear that?” kind of nonsense. This can be OK in some movies, but it really lacked substance for the majority of this film. The story is also pretty stupid at times, especially at the end.

Conclusion: This movie is decent, but rarely gets you truly interested. Everything about the story and thrills are too thin. However, the acting, cinematography, direction, and costumes are all very well done.