The Woman in Black

In class, we decided to watch and analyse the film, The Woman in Black for it is the most conventional horror film. Watching and analysing the film will help me to understand the conventions of the horror genre and I will be able to apply them within the creation of my teaser trailer, poster and film magazine.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/feb/12/woman-in-black-review-philip-french

After reading the article I noticed that the article picked up on a number of concepts:

• The comparisons between the novel and movie
• The many changes that were made.
• Arthur Kipps (Character in The Woman in Black) is similar to Jonathan Harker (Character in Bram Stoker’s Dracula)
• The many adaptations of The Woman in Black
• Follows the conventions of horror films
• Summary of the plot
• Mention of events in films
• Slight lack in horror
• Compliments to the film

The article itself is short and concise with formal and sophisticated language. The review is more informative rather than opinionated. It gives a brief address and has little compliments yet more criticisms. The guardian targets adults from 20 – 40, so adults would use somewhat sophisticated language and they would understand the purpose of the article. Overall the article is more critical than complimentary.

The Woman in Black Review:

There is no such thing as a horror movie without the use of darkness, jumpscares and haunted houses. So in order to find a horror movie that uses all those elements I decided to watch The Woman in Black, which is said to be the most typical horror movie to watch. I'll be the judge of that.

The Woman in Black is based on a book by Susan Hill - whilst slightly changing elements of the book for the film, the movie follows a young man by the name of Arthur Kipps. He’s a widow who aims to keep his job by travelling to a small village and sort out the paperwork of a deceased woman. He stays in the house of the deceased woman in which strange supernatural incidents happen and many, many children die.

This wasn't a very scary film for I didn't jump, scream nor feel my skin crawl with chills and goosebumps. It was a good storyline I admit, but I felt it lacked a spook element. The sounds and everything were perfect but I felt it missed out a lot. The Woman in Black definitely follows the conventions of a typical horror movie:

• Haunted house
• A local myth
• Creepy children
• A lack of light
• Dark colours

There are a few positives like the fact that you don’t see the ghost a lot which helps to alleviate the spook factor a bit and to present a face of terror. There are very very few positives for there are mostly negatives like there was not a clear understanding to the ghost’s purpose and the most obvious question: “Why does he not leave the house and town if he knows that there is crazy supernatural ghost acts happening?”

Daniel Radcliffe -who plays Arthur Kipps, does an okay job, I mean he is very adamant on keeping his job. He is a terrible father and human being and what happened to him was very deserving. It was very anti-climactic and it drained the story out of the horror movie. Overall it was a well-made film that perfectly used all the horror conventions but it lacked clarity in conveying a story.