With movies like 'The Sixth Sense,' 'The Others,' 'The Blair Witch Project,' 'The Ring' and 'Stir of Echoes,' the turn of the 21st century witnessed a revival of ghost and haunted house-based horror stories that we haven't seen since 'Poltergeist' and 'House' in the 1980's. Relying on spooky atmosphere, our 'fear of the unknown' (or imagination) and creeping suspense rather than the mask-wearing psychopaths and soaking blood-and-gore of slasher flicks that were in vogue during the '90s, this new Renaissance in horror proved to be an instant hit with moviegoers, and a steady stream of 'copycat' movies followed such as 'The Grudge,' 'The Orphanage,' 'Drag Me to Hell,' 'Insidious' and, of course, the three movies so far in the 'Paranormal Activity' series.
And herein lies the problem. 'The Woman in Black' is just the latest entry in a genre that has pretty much been done to death. As a gothic haunted house ghost story set in Edwardian England, it reminds me a little of Nicole Kidman's 'The Others' but without the shocking twist at the end. Based on an obscure novel by Susan Hill from 1983, TWIB treads familiar territory and offered nothing new in originality or scares. A vengeful spirit haunts a decrepit estate in remote northern England, and it is up to tortured young lawyer Arthur Kipps (played by Daniel Radcliff of Harry Potter fame), who's shattered by the recent loss of his wife during childbirth, to find out why and, in so doing, hopefully stop it from causing more children in the village to commit suicide. Ghosts, as we should all know by now, are restless spirits wandering our physical world due to some 'unresolved' issues that keep them from resting in peace and drifting off into the spirit world where they belong. Until they find 'closure' they will continue to roam our world and haunt houses.
Had this movie been made 10 years ago, I might have found it fresh and entertaining. Having seen so many movies of its type had made me so jaded that the same gimmicks that would have made me jump before (a sudden loud noise breaking the eerie silence, for instance) just doesn't do the trick anymore, yawn. Been-there, done-that I suppose. Not the movie's own fault, but it simply came 10 years too late as a variation on the same old theme. And its pacing is very slowwwwww.
5 out of 10
"Do you find me......sexy, ahem, scary???"
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