How do you follow up playing the title character in one of the most successful franchises in motion picture history? For Daniel Radcliffe, the answer came in the form of a low-budget horror film. While I originally questioned the choice, I can now honestly say that, in hindsight, it does work.
Radcliffe plays Arthur Kipps, a widowed lawyer who must travel to a remote village to care for a deceased woman's estate. But his discoveries go far beyond the rightful benefactor of the home as he lays sight on the ghost of a scorned woman who is terrorizing the locals. With his own family now at risk, he must uncover the reason for her misery or fear losing the one thing he lives for.
While you can't deny the overly simplistic story that surrounds The Woman in Black, the film actually appears much more complex thanks to inventive camera work and pacing by director James Watkins.
The story is set-up from the opening sequence as we witness three small girls casually playing with their dolls in a second-floor room. All three are suddenly overtaken by a power much stronger than their own will as each gets to her feet, walks to a nearby window, and steps out over the ledge.
Working with a limited budget and an actor that many feared would forever be typecast as the "Boy Wizard", Watkins takes everything in stride as he uses our own minds against us. Special effects take a back seat to the terror that we create ourselves, ultimately giving everyone a unique and entertaining ghost story.
I can't say that I went home scared. But the film did bring about several jump scenes that had people in the theater fearing for their lives, if only for a millisecond. I did challenge the billboards venturing to the film by myself"” I survived and was pleasantly entertained.
