From the Queue: Woman in Black

If there is one thing that an actor hates, it's being typecast. Daniel Radcliffe, having made his name as Harry Potter, has repeatedly tried to break free from the role with a series of dissimilar films. He has had various degrees of success in doing so.

In his latest film, The Woman in Black, Radcliffe plays Arthur Kipps. Kipps is a young 19th century lawyer from London who is assigned the tedious task of handling a rural woman's estate after she dies. Kipps is a widower with a young child, and is unhappy to be away from him for so long. Over the course of a week, Kipps pours over the old woman's files in her creepy old house. Oh yeah, all the locals have tried to convince him to leave and a bunch of kids around town start dying.

Though it takes it attempts to replicate the British haunted house genre of the last sixties, Woman in Black takes too many of its cues from sub-par modern day horror films.
There are lots of quiet slow moving scenes that are suddenly jolted by a loud noise that has nothing to do with the supernatural, (i.e. a kitchen faucet spouting water.)

The film attempts to establish an unnerving tone, and succeeds to a small end. There are a few scenes that cause the viewer to become uncomfortable; however, they always seemed forced into the film. The scenes of children's deaths are haunting, although you see them coming a mile away. The even lighting and cinematography also work against the film. There is no room for hidden terrors when you can see every corner of the house, or are riding through daylight.

Most of the film relies on the "jump," rather than actual scares. Radcliffe, believing to be alone, turns to face someone else (cue orchestra hit!) Radcliffe falls asleep in a chair and a hand reaches out to grab him (cue orchestra hit!) The film rehashes almost all of the conventions of PG-13 horror established over the past ten years or so. They even go so far as to pull a Ring or Drag Me To Hell ending.

While I can understand the appeal that Radcliffe would have in doing a smaller film outside of the genre that made him famous, this film really breaks no new ground. His character is stodgy and British; he is polite and quiet. It's not far enough away from his Potter character for audiences to gauge him any differently. Perhaps, he is trying to ween his image away slowly, rather than immediately jumping the wizard ship. In any case, I believe there had to have been a more effective horror film for him to have tried out.

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