Highly Overrated But Still Good

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Adrian Rawlins plays Arthur Kidd a solicitor who has been sent by his firm to settle the estate of Alice Drablow who has just passed away. Kidd looks at this as a chance to impress the firm with dreams of receiving a partnership. Soon thereafter he witnesses a dark and mysterious woman in black. He also hears horrible noises and voices when near the Nine Lives Causeway (aptly named) that leads to the isolated house. Kidd works on unwinding the mystery of the home.This is a TV movie, but I actually find it scarier than most over done Hollywood horror movies. They don't do it with buckets of blood, but rather with perhaps more subtlety, with sounds and a ghost story that takes time to develop, but is well worth the wait.I really do give screenwriter Nigel Kneale and director Herbert Wise credit for taking the Susan Hill novel which was a pretty darn good horror story and creating this great horror movie that does not stray that far from the novel (if my memory serves correct). I do apologize as I certainly do not remember everything from the novel as I read it a few years back, but I do remember that I really enjoyed it. Had me on the edge of my seat, which this movie does.Highly recommended to those who love a good ghost story.

Herbert Wise's Woman in Black is a blueprint on how a film should be made in order to scare the intelligent audience. Adapted from a book by the same name this Television film has one of the creepiest ghosts ever put on film- and she is there standing in broad daylight! The atmosphere is haunting and the pristine 16mm film stock lends itself well to the tone of the film. A remake starring Daniel Radcliffe was made in 2012 but it does away with everything that this film stands for-a minimalist approach. You should definitely see this movie- it maybe hard to procure but the entire film exists on you-tube.

This is the best ghost film of all time.In this film, you won't find blood and guts, cheap scares, or clichéd setups where you know exactly what is coming. You will just find a claustrophobic and disturbing presence - a happiness sapping looming malevolence that will scare your socks off.That horrifying woman, who appears sporadically throughout this low budget masterpiece, is a more terrifying spectre than anything I have seen in any other horror film. She doesn't even need to do anything - just her look... her stare is enough to send a chill right through my body. And that's the beauty of this film. It gets the atmosphere bang on.Since seeing this film for the first time many years ago, it has been the absolute benchmark of quality for every horror film I have since watched. Nothing has yet come close.The only other film that gets anywhere near is the original Wicker Man (another fantastic film).If your idea of a scary film is the slasher horror style so beloved by Hollywood, then this might not be your cup of tea. It is a slow paced film that builds inexorably towards its double-whammy horrifying ending and the sophisticated film viewer will savour every minute.If you haven't seen this film already, it is a piece of work that you simply must experience. The Harry Potter version doesn't even come close.

OK, so there is a new version in Cinemas right now. Its what made me go find this the original version of the book brought to the big screen. Please don't think me a spoil sport awarding the score I have as I do own a formidable library of what I hope are some of the best films made! I try daily to find and see great movies. OK...the movie...It is filmed in what looks like video for a start. The style also lends somehow to the period. It looks OLD! It starts well enough with great sets, clothes and locations. Everyone so far looks and sounds the part. Its eerie. Its misty. It has the right weird locals (see American Werewolf in London) It builds nicely. There is some suspense there. There is no sign of it being bad for quite a while....there is a graveyard sequence that only helps stoke the imagination into thinking this could be a gem. I mean it is being re made by a big Hollywood studio an a massive budget. It moves to a house on an island where the recently deceased lady who's accounts the solicitor has to root through and make sense of lived. This is when it all becomes quite apparent that the effects and acting department...I mean producing and Direction is blatantly not on the ball. The small budget spent on actors shows through. It goes from bad to worse. When does this happen? Well in what I have read to be the most chilling scene in the movie. THE ONLY chilling (can you call it chilling after seeing it) scene in the movie. The make up is so awful!! The acting gets worse. The story more unbelievable. Maybe it was heavily edited or just badly. It starts to make little sense. The ending which I won't spoil is...well...it left me open mouthed as to why I had bothered to watch a movie that I should have first looked up properly in critics reviews. As I have seen no really great critics had said anything on it! OK it got a 7.4! That is why I felt obliged to warn some other poor viewer not to waste time seeing this! The new 2012 movie looks great, it also seems to be truer to the original book. Watch this at your peril!!!