Published: 9 February, 2012
by DAN CARRIER

Directed by James Watkins
Certificate 12a

Rating: 3 Out Of 5 Stars

Close your eyes and imagine the scariest, spookiest house in the whole world.

Got it?

Well, that ivy-covered, dark-windowed, floor-creaky and desolate property looks exactly like the building which is an unexpected star of this British-made, Hammer horror film.

The Woman In Black is a ghost story with the grim premise of children’s deaths being caused by... well, I don’t want to ruin the smidgen of suspense this film contains, so I’ll leave it there.  

You would have thought Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Arthur Kipps, had had enough of long, creepy corridors swished down by ghosts and ghouls – but while as Harry Potter he was armed with some defence, in this adaptation of a spooky book by author Susan Hill, he has nothing but the fact he doesn’t believe in such things.

However, as we learn, struck down by grief at the loss of his wife during childbirth four years earlier, he does sometimes wonder if there is such a thing as the hereafter.

He wonders if ghosts and spirits are real, as he sometimes feels his dearly departed is standing next to him.

We learn that due to his grief he hasn’t been doing so well in his job as a notary, and is given one last chance by his stern boss.

It involves going to a home called Eel Marsh House, stuck out on a lonely island across a road that is covered twice a day by the high tides, and going through the personal papers of a recently deceased owner.

He is told in no uncertain terms that he has a few days to get her affairs in order, sort her will out, and return – or face being out of a job.

So it isn’t exactly grand to turn up at the back end of beyond and find a village where the inhabitants want nothing to do with him, or the house – and in fact are actively encouraging him to make himself scarce, immediately, before anyone comes to grief.

The village has suffered a series of heartbreaking deaths of younger members of the place – and there seems to be a pattern emerging.

Kipps boldly sets out to complete his task, but finds himself curtailed by mysterious sights and sounds, which gives him a mystery to solve.

The film is bogged down throughout with the heavy odour of Victorian spiritualism.

The house reminded me of another Victorian ghost storyteller.

Victor Hugo’s home in Guernsey, Hauteville House, was fashioned in this style and every creaking floorboard seemed to have a hidden secret to tell.

It is a mastery of set design, and you have to raise a hat to St Martin’s School of Art graduate, Kave Quinn.

The production designer has created a very eerie backdrop for the action to unfold in front of.

This is standard horror fare. It is clichéd stuff, but isn’t that what you want from this type of film?

There are buttons those watching a horror expect to have pushed, and they get roundly thumped here.