The Woman in Black (2012)
I had been waiting for this film for quite some time. With a lack of horror releases lately, it was a welcome viewing, but The Woman in Black brought nothing new to the genre. I am a big fan of haunting and ghost-style films, but TWIB really disappointed me overall. I will start off by saying that I have a bias against oldie-timey films, but oddly enough that aspect of the film did not bother me quite so much. I thought it to be a welcome setting for this specific story. The opening scene with the two children who are motivated to murder themselves starts the movie off with a bang, and then things go downhill from there. I will say the film was not terrible, but if you are a fan of films like The Orphanage, The Others, Rose Red, and Skeleton Key – this film will not bring a lot of new tricks to the board. I will note that the aesthetics of the film keep the viewing experience interesting and worthwhile. The storyline behind the actuality was not overly interesting – the plot of child-killer is a nice unique plot device. Overall, the film brings some of the startling style scares but doesn’t bring the type of real fear that a ghost story could incite into a viewer.