The Woman in Black - 7 stars out of 10

The Woman in Black - 7 stars out of 10

It is not often that a movie can truly be considered "terrifying" but "The Woman in Black" left me quivering in my seat.  And based on the fact that I've never used the word "quivering" prior to this moment, I'd say that it left a pretty big impression.  This film is your standard haunted house/ghost story where the mystery is slowly revealed one piece at a time, but it is done incredibly well.  The key to this film's chills are its relentless sequences of intensity.  Many scary movies alternate terror with comic relief to give the audience a break but the only comic relief in "The Woman in Black" is the nervous laughter from people in the theater, trying to break the tension.  Other movies sporadically use short, scary scenes punctuated by "jump" moments, while the rest of the film is a dark drama to explain the plot.  This film's terror comes in the form of long, uninterrupted heart-pounding sequences of horror that escalate to the film's climax.  That 20-minute long sequence in the middle of the film where it's just Daniel Radcliff alone in the house with weird stuff popping out everywhere is merciless and had my body so tense that I was shaking.  It's an amazing, unending barrage of terror.  Although they use the same "dark figure suddenly appearing in the background" tactic over and over again, it is done in such an effective manner that each appearance becomes more frightening than the last.  Images like the rocking chair are used over and over again, but instead of losing their poignancy, the effect is multiplied each time.  The dull, gray-scale cinematography really sets the desired tone on the entire film.  And the fire sequence: WOW!  The film seems much longer than 95 minutes, probably because those frightening sequences feel like they will never end.  Radcliffe's acting was very good, though I had trouble believing that he was old enough to have a 4-year-old son.  Unfortunately, "The Woman in Black" has a much larger flaw.  The first 80 minutes were so good, but it was all spoiled by the final 15 minutes.  I don't know what the writers and editors were thinking, but the ending of the movie opens up several unnecessary plot holes that are never resolved or explained.  Why does Sam Daily see his son in the house?  Why does he get locked in the room?  Why doesn't anything happen to him?  Where does his son go?  And let's not forget the ending that just kills all of the film's momentum.  I can think of cheesy endings that would have been much worse than this one, but I also think that they could have done better and left things more open-ended.  "The Woman in Black" is a delightfully terrifying story that kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish, but I wish that I would've walked out of the theater talking about the chills instead of the disappointing ending.