Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

There are two kinds of horror films. The first depends for its scares on graphic gore, unrestrained violence, and blood -- lots of it. The second relies more on mood and an escalating sense of terror than gruesome images to get under the skin. "The Woman in Black" falls into the second category. It's a film rich in atmosphere that takes its time getting underway but, once it kicks in, never lets go. In pre-World War I England, Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe), a young London lawyer with a small son, is grieving over his dead wife. His employer is fed up with Arthur's dour attitude and sends him to Yorkshire to handle the sale of an estate. Arthur is warned that this will be his last chance to distinguish himself for the firm. Arriving after a long journey, Arthur is met and befriended by a local squire, Daily (Ciaran Hinds), though the other townsfolk are not thrilled with the visit of an outsider. Arthur is brought to the house of the deceased, which lies quite a distance from town. It is the textbook example of the House of Gloom -- grey, run down, surrounded by overgrown shrubbery, broken gates marking its entrance -- a place that immediately foreshadows bad things to come. For much of the movie, Arthur is alone in the house -- or is he? Many of the trappings of a traditional ghost story are here -- the rainstorm, shadowy corridors, a dog barking at something not seen, an endless number of rooms, each with creepy and unsettling contents. And then there are the sightings: a darkly attired female figure, a face at a window, a fresh handprint on a window, a corpse rising from a muddy grave. Whether these are real or only figments of Arthur's imagination is left to speculation -- at least for a while. "The Woman in Black" is from Hammer Studios, famous for a series of highly profitable Technicolor horror films made between 1957 and the early 70's. Those features always had great production values and good actors, giving them far more style than their competitors. "The Woman in Black" is true to that tradition. Instead of a collection of young and pretty 20-somethings who will be disposed of in messy ways, it boasts a first-rate cast. Mr. Radcliffe's character is the focus of the movie and he is totally convincing as the lawyer hoping to make good while under a cloud of depression over the loss of his beloved wife. He infuses his performance with a sad determination, as if he is running a track meet with his feet encased in cement blocks. He forges on, knowing his livelihood depends on successfully delving through a myriad of papers, settling the estate, and seeing to the sale of the house. Yet he misses his wife and the life they had together. His Arthur Kipps is as far removed from Harry Potter as Hamlet is from the Nutty Professor. Mr. Hinds's Squire Daily is on hand mostly to provide balance to the inhospitable townsfolk, who would be equally at home carrying torches up a hill in a Frankenstein movie. He prides himself on not being superstitious and refuses to believe the many deaths of children in town are anything more than unfortunate coincidence. He also provides some exposition, filling us in on what happened in that gloomy house and why Arthur will undoubtedly fail to find a local buyer. Hinds has a patrician look and never smiles. He suggests a careworn aristocrat who has seen much and prefers to trust his senses to belief in the otherworldly. Janet McTeer appears briefly, but unforgettably, as Mrs. Daily, a woman who is either an amusing eccentric or a looney, depending on how you interpret her actions. Ms. McTeer adds bizarre contrast to a film in which the expression of choice appears to be glumness. Dressed in frills and smiling pleasantly, she enjoys hosting Arthur for dinner. It's not until we see some of her odd habits that we realize she may have a few cards missing from her deck. Director James Watkins has fashioned an entertaining horror film. It's the kind of movie those who are turned off by bloody mayhem can embrace, since it's more about dread and terror than horror. We experience the house and its history through the eyes of Arthur Kipps. Watkins knows how to use sound and silence to enhance mood. Long stretches of silence will precede a loud noise that will make us jump, but those stretches of silence are filled with suspense and anticipation. We know that something -- anything -- might happen unexpectedly. Ample credit must be given to those responsible for the film's creepy milieu. Art director Paul Ghirardani, production designer Kave Quinn, and set decorator Niamh Coulter have decorated every nook and cranny of the old manor house with Victorian furnishings, faded paintings, large carved cabinets, countless candles, cobwebs, and eerie old wind-up toys. One can almost smell the mustiness. Rated PG-13, "The Woman in Black" takes itself seriously and never resorts to self-deprecation. The characters behave intelligently and have actual motivations. It is in the league of Jack Clayton's "The Innocents" or Robert Wise's creaky-old-house melodrama, "The Haunting." Like those earlier films, it shows what happens when a person is confronted with the supernatural and reality seems to spin wildly out of control.