The Woman in black-Reviewed.



Harry Potter in a classic ghost story from Hammer,Whats the bloody hell is that going to be like? I thought it would be terrible, i couldn't have been more wrong, it's great!!
Coming from the original story from surprisingly 1983(i thought it was a lot older) by Susan Hill it has been adapted to stage and screen many a time over the years with a great adaptation for TV by ITV in 1989 which is also a version well worth tracking down with the screenplay done by the legendary Nigel Kneale of Quartermass fame.
It was originally brought to the stage in 1987 in the small town of Scarborough then after a hugely successful run and much acclaim by critics it was taken to the west end of London in 1989 and still plays there to this day as well as many other stage productions that continue to run around the world.
The basic story tells of Aurthur Kipps(Daniel Radcliffe) who is taking care of his 4 year old son Joseph Kipps(played by Misha Handley who is Daniel's real life godson) and struggling both financially and emotionally after the death of his wife, he is also plagued by visions of her. His job is a solicitor and He is offered a job to handle the estate of deceased lady Alice Drablon and sort out the finances and inheritance of her Manor house, Eel marsh house. The house is located on an island that gets cut off at night due to tidal rises, this sets the theme to make it even creepier at night and adds greatly to this classic tale.



Now my thoughts................
As i said when i first heard this was being made and being a fan of the source material and the great TV adaptation by ITV i was more than a Little sceptical but i could not have been more, within 5 minutes i had completely forgot that Radcliffe had been anywhere near a Harry Potter film, he has come on greatly as an actor in my opinion, it had the feel of a real old school Hammer film with the atmosphere, location, costumes, soundtrack and top notch scares and acting, If Hammer continue in this form i really can't wait to see what they have up there sleeve, did i mention that it also makes you jump like hell, something i have not seen successfully done in a horror movie for a long time.
It was originally planned to be shot in 3D but was scrapped, thank god, this achieves more in 2D than most do in 3D, Now to say this was a box office success would be and understatement, with the budget at $151, it raked in a cool $126 million! and is the most successful British horror film in 20 years, so with that box office return hopefully it will be pumped back in to some more future Hammer classics to match the old school classics, bring 'um on!
A very solid 8/10
Jonny T.