The Woman In Black Review

I saw The Woman In Black on Friday February 3, 2012. I thought it was a really interesting movie. It was a very good thriller with a pretty decent story to it. It was set in the 1800s. The opening really sets the pace for a good thriller. You see three girls having a tea party and all of a sudden as if under a trance walk to the windows and jump out of them. It was a good introduction, as it leads into the life of Arthur Kipp played very well by Daniel Radcliffe. He is a solicitor sent to Crythin Gifford to deal with a funeral of Mrs. Alice Drablow. He has a four year old son and his wife died in child birth. He is sent to the house at Eel Marsh which is a huge house pretty secluded from the rest of the town. As he settles into the house, he notices a strange woman wearing all black with a pale face. He knows he saw something, but many people including Daily played by Ciaran Hinds thinks the house just plays tricks on you with the stories you hear. We find out that his son mysteriously died at a very young age and the mother feels like Nicholas (their son) speaks to them through sketches. He encounters several of the townspeople and notices that the children are all acting strange whether it be boys or girls. They glance at him through windows and locked doors, but he doesn't understand why. The children then all die gruesome deaths and the townspeople are enraged that all of these deaths happened mostly around the time he showed up. Kipp wants to get to the bottom of the mystery. He looks through chests in the house and discovers letters showing that Alice Drablow's son is actually the son of her sister Jennet Humphrey. Jennet Humphrey is an important part to the plot as she feels that her son was wrongfully taken from her as she was forced to give her son to Alice. Also, her son mysteriously died at age 7 near the marshlands. Due to the fact that Jennet feels she was wronged and lost her son, this morphs into the woman in black. Jennet is seen by the children before their deaths as it seems her spirit forces them to kill themselves and also to show the parents of Crythin Gifford that their children aren't safe and each child that dies joins her side as if each one helps to make up for that son Nathaniel that she had to give up. It gets very intense and really plays tricks with you. That's why it was a good thriller. It didn't really have cheap scares. Each one meant something. Arthur and Daily come up with a plan as Arthur feels if he can reunite Nathaniel and Jennet, things will get better. He goes into the marshlands and digs up the body with the help of Daily and it leads to a big face off with Jennet and Arthur. They place Nathaniel in the casket with her mother and Arthur believes everything is at it seems. One interesting dichotomy I enjoyed was that whenever he feels his deceased wife's presence she is wearing all white which counteracts the evil nature of Jennet's black attire. The ending is intense and a great twist that I enjoyed. I won't spoil it and I'm not sure if it is in the book, but if it is you know what's coming. Good ending to a pretty good movie. I'll give it a 4/5.