Review: The Woman in Black (2012)

Why do I do these things to myself? I've already mentioned that I don't cope well with scary films, yet still I try one every now and again! To be honest, I actually don't mind watching a scary film if I have friends over. We can talk through all the quiet, suspense-building scenes, and then scream and laugh at each other with each jumpy moment. I thought that I would be okay with The Woman in Black though, it was given a 12A rating in the UK! I am also not a fan of horror films, I don't find them particularly interesting and I find more and more modern horror films are all either remakes or false suspense like Paranormal Activity, not entertaining just irritating.  Saying that, I recently watched The Conjuring which dashed all my assumptions of modern horror movies by focusing on the story, which was actually interesting and not on jumping the viewer - but I'm going off on a tangent now!!

 

The other night, we had our friends over to play some games, and as I'd just picked up The Woman in Black and we've been talking for ages about doing a scary movie sleepover once they've moved house, we thought why not just watch this now.

 

I struggled at first to understand the storyline, but from what I gather; Daniel Radcliffe plays a young lawyer who has lost his wife. He's been struggling at work and his boss has given him one last chance to redeem himself, and sends him to a remote village to deal with the paperwork relating to an old house where the owner has died. I'm pretty sure you can picture the rest.

 

There is absolutely no way that this should have been a 12A! I looked into the changes that had been made in order to be awarded that rating, and it's miniscule. About 15 seconds from the total film were cut. I couldn't imagine my 10 year old self enjoying this at all... Funnily enough, I wasn't scared of films when I was a kid but when I turned about 20 it all went wrong...

 

Nonetheless, I really enjoyed this film. The suspense got the best of me more than a few times and the guys were laughing at me and my friend Robyn because we kept screaming and talking through the too-quiet moments. The clip below was one of the moments we were hiding in our jumpers going 'lalalalala'!  I might have to get you round for a movie night if I want to even attempt to watch this, the trouble I find is not throughout the movie, but at the end when you have to turn the tele off and go upstairs on your own in the dark and check all your cupboards for 'people'

 

 

The story was interesting, it didn't go off on a tangent at all and the ending was unexpected but satisfying. It can be translated in two ways and I'm not sure which I prefer yet. This would have been an easy 8 for me but there were quite a few scare moments in it that were just un-necessary. Also I gather there's been a sequel!?  I hadn't heard of a sequel but maybe we can do a double whammy movie night if there is ;-)