Film Review of The Woman in Black

So, I had to write a film review paper of The Woman in Black for my film class, and I figured I'd share it here since I talked about the film so much.  Beware, it contains spoilers since my intended audience was one that I was to assume had seen the film already.  This is not quite the final draft, so I may edit it and repost later.  Enjoy!

Film Review: The Woman in Black

            The Woman in Black starring Daniel Radcliffe is a horror ghost story based upon the book of the same name by Susan Hill.  The story centers on Radcliffe’s character, Arthur, who is a solicitor sent to examine the paperwork of the deceased Alice Drablow.  During his stay in the Drablow house, he encounters the mysterious and threatening Woman in Black and her connection with the recent deaths of several children in the village.  While it utilizes several techniques of a horror film, The Woman in Black defies the stereotypes of a typical modern horror film with its catching storyline and cinematography by using several of those techniques in unexpected ways.  Instead of focusing on the scare, filmmakers focused The Woman in Black into a quality film of substance.

The setting of the film is a drab little town surrounded mostly by marshland, specifically the dilapidated House in the Marsh, former home of the deceased Mrs. Drablow.  The Marsh House is a classic example of a “haunted house” stereotype; it is old, run-down, and has an empty and deserted feel to it.  It is also separated from the town by marshland, making it a very lonely and set-apart kind of place.  For the most part, the setting conforms to the horror film style.  The setting itself helps to set the menacing tone and is meant to repulse the audience; they are supposed to feel a creeping fascination for the Marsh House despite their conviction that it is a place of horror.  Despite this conformity, the setting manages to play a large role in the storyline, unlike many modern horror films in which the setting is mostly unimportant.  The Marsh House is where Arthur learns about the Woman in Black and solves the main mystery surrounding her; through reading her letters and exploring the house, Arthur realizes that Jennet Drablow, the Woman in Black, “takes” the children of the town in revenge for the taking of her own son.  The Marsh House is almost symbolic of Jennet herself: it is left uncared for and treated with fear and repulsion, as was she.

The film utilizes the modern horror technique of scaring the audience with things “jumping out” at them; a scene builds in intensity until something visually or aurally happens quickly in a manner that is meant to startle the viewers.  Most of these types of moments are easy enough to anticipate, which only adds to the tension the audience is meant to feel.  This film also uses this technique in a different way than one might normally see in a modern horror film; a scene will build in intensity as usual, but several times, the film brought that intensity to a halt without resolving it in a startling manner as would be expected.  Instead, it either did not resolve at all, leaving a lingering feeling of tension among the audience, or it resolved unexpectedly several minutes, increasing the startling effect. 

Another modern horror technique this film used was the type of shot that is meant to draw attention to a small bit of background action rather than the main character in the foreground.  In this type of shot, the camera would focus an off-center close-up on Arthur while there was something going on in the background behind him of which the viewer was meant to focus or take notice.  This happened mostly inside the Marsh House, and the important background action usually involved some form of haunting by the Woman in Black.  These sorts of shots create a sense of dramatic irony; the audience is meant to see the hauntings of the Woman in Black that escape the notice of Arthur, giving the sense that the audience knows more about what is going on than the main character.  These shots also serve to give the Woman in Black a more mysterious role, as the audience does not see her fully until relatively late in the film.  Before the very last shot of the film, which slowly zooms in on her face, the audience does not get a decent look at the Woman in Black at all, as all the sightings of her are either in the background, very quick shots meant to startle the audience, or shots in which her face is veiled or unclear.  Throughout the film, the audience gradually sees her more and more closely, then finally when the film ends and the audience sees the close up of her face, she looks through camera directly at the audience.

Throughout the film, the audience, along with Arthur, learns about the Woman in Black and who she is.  The film uses voice-over from the Woman in Black to read her angry and vengeful letters to her sister.  This personifies her quite a bit and makes her someone with whom the audience may sympathize rather than just someone who inspires fear.  Arthur Kipps is also a character with whom the audience may sympathize, as he is a single parent mourning the loss of his spouse while trying to protect his only child from the wrath of the Woman in Black.  The ending fits, in a way, with both of those sympathies.  Arthur and his son both die, but they remain together and they also regain the lost wife.  The Woman in Black takes her revenge but also allows Arthur to have back the one thing which he was missing in life.  The ending manages to satisfy both characters’ wishes in a way that is quite startling due to its theme of death.

While utilizing several different techniques associated with modern horror films, The Woman in Black manages to differentiate itself from other films in its genre by its storyline and its slightly unusual use of stereotypical horror techniques.  It was a quality film that did the story justice and provided a tense yet strangely delightful viewing experience.