The Woman in Black (2012)

In 7 words or less: Angry ghost woman is still very bitter.

What's it all About? Radcliffe has seen terrible tragedy in his short life. But he's also lived more than a man his age would physiologically allow him to. Anyway, he's almost over that now and he has a hot new assignment in the seaside town of Crithyn Gifford. This is going to be great! File some dead Woman's papers and then kick back on the beach for a couple of days. Radcliffe couldn't be more excited. On his arrival, he gets a very frosty reaction indeed. As you would expect. What are the townsfolk so afraid of? It can't be Radders... Maybe it's that Ghost Woman over there who kills kiddies?

Holy Shiiii*iiiit!

Best bits? There are two chunky shiver scares in this version. That's not really enough, but they are quite good. One of them involved a rocking chair, which is amped up from previous versions of the story, which is very creepy indeed. Another one involves a prolonged sighting of the WIB which is creeptastic. The best part in the trailer where you see a face appear behind Radders in the window accompanied by a scare-SFX has sadly been toned down in the final edit so it didn't make it into the best bits.

The WIB in 2011 Trailer and in 2012 Release. From evil to Joker.

Did it make you think thoughts? This didn't quite hit the spot for me. I've been looking forward to this version for a while now as a fan of the story and it was mainly disappointing. It wasn't at all scary enough. It had it's moments, which were very creepy, but it couldn't keep them up. Apparently the scare factor was toned down in the final cut to get it the questionable 12A certificate. I could have done with it being toned back up again.

It all looks very pretty though, some really nice shots. Although I'm not keen on this type of editing for horror. I can see right through it. You're not scaring anyone with your MTV editing. Stop the quick cuts and flashing images of ghost children. It doesn't work.

It's grim up north.

I'm not sure why they felt the need for the story change either. Again reducing the scares and shock factor of Susan Hill's original story.

On a plus point. Although clearly too young for the role. Radcliffe actually makes a really good go at this. He's enjoyable to watch (despite still making too much noise when not saying anything) and I'm looking forward to his future films. A comforting screen presence.

Would you watch it again? I think so, I'm not sure what else I could do to boost enjoyment of it more though. I might just read the book again. Or watch the TV film. Or listen to the radio play. Or, maybe I had drunk too much wine and I was immune to the scares? No. This would be scary to a pack of lynxy teens but not to older horror fans.

Rubbish Baby Scares

Rating (out of 100%): 51% If you like your horror cutesy and cut together like a Bush video from 1997 then this could be for you.