Movie Monday: Review of The Woman in Black (2012)

Movie Monday (formerly Movie Cast Monday) is where I (or one of my guest bloggers) connect two of my favorite things: books...and movies! We've got everything from ideal castings for your favorite book to movie recommendations based on the books you've read and liked. I've also started reviewing movies and TV shows as well. Stop by my Movie Monday page to see what we've featured in the past, and tune in on Mondays for more!

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Synopsis (taken from The Woman in Black website)

Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe), a widowed lawyer whose grief has put his career in jeopardy, is sent to a remote village to sort out the affairs of a recently deceased eccentric. But upon his arrival, it soon becomes clear that everyone in the town is keeping a deadly secret. Although the townspeople try to keep Kipps from learning their tragic history, he soon discovers that the house belonging to his client is haunted by the ghost of a woman who is determined to find someone and something she lost… and no one, not even the children, are safe from her vengeance.

Starring: 

Daniel Radcliffe is the headliner in this one (like you didn't know).

Release Date: 

February 2012 (in theaters now!)

Rating: 

PG-13

My Thoughts
I decided to go see The Woman in Black last Tuesday for two reasons: 1) Daniel Radcliffe was in it and 2) I'm a sucker for a good scary movie. Lucky for me, one of my local movie theaters has half price Tuesdays, so for a mere $3.50, I got to see a movie I had long been waiting for. 
Going into the film, I knew one thing....The Woman in Black would probably determine if I would ever be able to see Radcliffe as someone other than Harry Potter. Don't get me wrong, I love Harry Potter (both the books and the movies), but after seeing Radcliffe in so many movie installments as the same character for SO many years, I was afraid that he might be permanently typecast in my brain. 
Fortunately, this was definitely not the case. For the first five minutes or so of The Woman in Black, I was definitely thinking about Harry Potter, but that was it. Radcliffe took next to no time to fully convince me that he was Arthur Kipps, a down-on-his-luck attorney mourning the loss of his beloved wife. For the remainder of the film, Harry Potter didn't even cross my mind. In my opinion, Radcliffe's performance in The Woman in Black was a compelling one, and it marked him as an actor with the capability to perform outside of a single role.
I was pleasantly surprised to find myself almost immediately drawn into the movie. The setting was gloomy and Gothic and decidedly creepy. As a horror movie fan, I'll be the first to admit that one of the flaws of the genre is its tendency to center on gore and shock value instead of actually developing characters or a story line. The awesome thing about The Woman in Black was that it managed to have all of the qualities of a good horror flick that leave your spine tingling and heart racing, but a lot of attention was paid to the story as well. 
On a sidenote, Ciaran Hinds also deserves a mention for his role as the wealthy townsman, Sam Daily. In a town full of superstitious people, Daily is a nonbeliever and is one of the only characters who welcomes Arthur Kipps, even going so far as to provide him a room at his house when he is forced to leave the local inn. Hinds' role as Daily created a vivid (albeit secondary) character whose presence added significantly to my enjoyment of the film.
Overall, The Woman in Black had everything I could ever want in a good horror movie. It's definitely not for the faint of heart, but for those of you who are wondering, the gore is kept to a minimum, and it's more of a psychological thriller than anything else. Still, not a movie I would recommend watching before bed, but one that I would recommend to anyone who has any interest at all in the horror movie genre!

Rating

Literary Link

The film The Woman in Black is based on a novel by the same name, published by Susan Hill in 1983. I haven't read the book, but after seeing the movie, I've added it to my to-read list. For more information, click the image above to be taken to the book's Goodreads page!