Cinema review: The Woman in Black

A ghost story set in an isolated house during the Edwardian period.

This is a movie about archetypes. Probably many will be surprised by discovering that Susan Hill original novel came out just in 1893 but, as it often happens, the purest example of something are not concocted by people living it, they are made afterward during the inevitable revivals by people who have the perfect hindsight about it.

So “The Woman in Black”, both the novel and the movie, is the archetypal gothic horror story. It contains all the tropes of the genre, you name it, it’s there.

This leads us to a somewhat tricky point for the standard internet reviewer. See in this revival oriented age where the grownup fan boy leads the masses towards new trends, or at least thinks he is a big trendsetter, originality is a sacred value. We are ready to slaughter a lamb on the altar of star wars and its ilk but we never forgive new iterations of them. We want to relive the classics of our youth but we are never satisfied if it happens.

Getting to the case in question “The Woman in Black” will give you a distinct sense of déjà vu. If you ever saw a gothic horror you know exactly what you’ll see, up to the minutiae. To the ever angry masses of the internet it will be boring and dumb but if you open your mind a little bit you’ll discover a movie that actually revels in being cliché, that goes for the best and most complete gothic horror experience possible and manages it perfectly.

What really matters of course is execution and here everything is pitch perfect. Even if you know what’s going to happen, in reality knowing exactly what’s going to happen, all the scares are perfectly set up and executed. Apart from the very scares this movie real success is the eerie and unsettling atmosphere that they created, full of foreboding and tiny details that make a world of difference in screen.

The plot of course is really cliché and often you’ll marvel in disbelief at the choices made by our protagonist but, as the trope dictates, our hero always does the most stupid choices in these movies.

Speaking of the protagonist here we have the first post Harry Potter role for the titular wizard actor. Daniel Radcliffe, who by now is clearly just an actor by hobby considering all the money he made, impress with what a smart casting choice that plays well to his strengths. As Harry Potter he played mostly two expressions, fearful and determined. Here he uses mostly the first one and while he looks a little bit too young for a father, they gave him a stubble to compensate, he excels in the role.

A bunch of established thespians, led by the very good Ciaran Hinds, surrounds him and elevate the tone of the movie.

If you like gothic horror, this is a movie you have to see.