Printer-friendly version
By Brian Lafferty
February 3, 2012 (San Diego) – Grading horror movies is the same as grading comedies; whether the film works is dependent on a certain reaction from the audience. Just as a comedy’s success is based on laughter, a horror film’s success is based on scares. During the screening of The Woman in Black, the critic sitting next to me kept covering his eyes and looking away from the screen. I, on the other hand, sat through the film mostly ramrod and admittedly unemotional.
Attorney Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) is sent to a remote village to resolve the legal affairs of a deceased client. While inspecting the client’s dilapidated house, and being haunted by sights of supernatural terrors, he learns that some of the children in the village have been dying miserable deaths. He links it to the titular ghost, who lost her son after a scandal. Vowing to take from other parents what was taken from her, she returns as a vengeful spirit. Whenever she’s spotted, a child dies.
A horror movie’s ability to scare is contingent on the genre’s unique traits, the first of which is atmosphere. A haunted house film needs a house that instills trepidation in the audience. It needs to be a setting that an average person wouldn’t want to step foot in.
From the first shot of the film, something bothered me. The movie starts with three little girls playing with their dolls. Suddenly, they become entranced, absently walk to their second story window, and jump to their deaths. That scene, and the rest of the film, was missing something.
It was later I realized that the filmmakers got too complacent. Complacency isn’t always a bad thing in movies, but it’s inappropriate here.
The lighting and color palette are rudimentary. They consist of black, white, grey, and blue. Even though a majority of the film takes place at night, the darkness lacks menacing qualities. The best haunted house films know how to use darkness to conceal potential horrors. The cinematography here is basic night cinematography, not dark enough and a little too light. It wasn’t intimidating.
A score can greatly enhance a horror film, and can be one of its biggest assets. I remember the opening credits of The Amityville Horror (1979). Lalo Schifrin’s soft piano and flutes, combined with the creepy “la la la’s” sung by little girls, provided the scariest part of a forgettable and ineffectual haunted house movie.
Then there’s Halloween (1978), in which John Carpenter’s repeated piano riff (inspired by Dario Argento’s Deep Red) got under my skin. And who can forget Jerry Goldsmith’s Oscar winning score for The Omen (1976), which appropriately sounded like something straight out of Hell.
Like the cinematography, the score here is basic and unmemorable. It could have been composed for any horror movie. There’s nothing unique or creepy about it. It lacks emotion.
This lack of thought proves detrimental to The Woman in Black. The cinematic approach to the material is half-assed and hesitant. Rather than using cinematography, music, and atmosphere to frighten, The Woman in Black relies primarily on jump scares. If you’re going to use jump scares, it works best as a complement to those qualities, not as the film’s bread-and-butter.
The Woman in Black may scare some people, like the critic next to me. Others may not even flinch. I didn’t, so the movie gets a C from me. There simply wasn’t a lot of thought put into it. I will say that if you’re of the easily-spooked kind, then I wouldn’t stop you from seeing it.
C
The Woman in Black is now playing in wide release.
A CBS Films release. Director: James Watkins. Screenplay: Jane Goldman, from the novel by Susan Hill. Original Music: Marco Beltrami. Cinematography: Tim Maurice-Jones. Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Ciaran Hinds, Janet McTeer, and Sophie Stuckey. 95 minutes. Rated PG-13.
Brian Lafferty can be reached at brian@eastcountymagazine.org. You can also follow him on Twitter: @BrianLaff.
Recent comments