Sunday, February 26, 2012

Movies: The Woman In Black

Imagine you spend a night alone in a big empty house full of old things. Imagine in the middle of the night you are waked by loud noises when it should be quiet. Imagine that suddenly dead things begin to move.

The movie "The Woman In Black" (imdb) makes those imaginations almost real because it immerses the viewer in a creepy but believable atmosphere. Director James Watkins tells the tale of woman who`s ghost, the "black woman", haunts people who can see her.

The flick, which plays in the beginning of the last century, was shot in an old mansion (the Eel Marsh House), located on an island in the marshes in Northern England. The loneliness of this place makes the plot more scary.

The real star of the film is interior of the house: Furniture, music boxes and a lot of mechanical toys which create a creepy atmosphere. IMDB reports that these things were not created for the movie, but were genuine antique toys from the period, loaned to the production by a collector (imdb). Scary noises created by the sound department and the darkly shot pictures by cinematographer Tim Maurice-Jones intensified the goose-bump-effect.

Daniel Radcliffe, the leading human actor, fits well into the scary tale. His character, stricken by the death of his wive, has to stay in the haunted house and gets in the maelstrom of the "Black Woman". This film was his first movie since the end of the "Harry Potter" Series. I reckon that this was a good choice and I would like to see more from Radcliffe.

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