The Woman in Black: Herbert Wise

Not all ghost stories have happy endings. Not all tales of wandering spirits end with the restless dead finally finding peace or experiencing righteous judgement for their deeds. Sometimes the dead win. Herbert Wise's television production of Susan Hill's novel The Woman in Black is such a story. Like many great ghost stories, it involves death, a young ingenue, and a haunted mansion. Arthur Kidd, a young solicitor, is sent from London to a small town on the East coast of England to settle the accounts of a recently deceased client. Upon arrival, he becomes caught up in a tragic legend of a mysterious woman in black who always appears before the death of a local child. This ghastly specter is somehow involved with Kidd's dead client...but how? The Woman in Black is a slow, methodical horror film that takes its time establishing an atmosphere and then smashing it during the last act. It may seem to drag on at first, but the pay-off is worth it. This film doesn't try to scare its audience throughout the entirety of its length. It's smart and confident in itself enough to know that when the horror does finally come, it'll stay with you for the rest of your life.

7/10