Hammer horror is back with a bang, and more jumps than you can shake a stick at. Hammer, the legendary horror film brand, is responsible for some of the greatest films of all time, including “Dracula” and “The Hound of the Baskervilles”. It is well-known for its gory and chilling horror films, and “The Woman in Black” is no different.
“The Woman in Black”, starring “Harry Potter” actor Daniel Radcliffe, is currently number one at the UK box office and is certainly not for the faint-hearted. It is great to see Radcliffe branching out in to more adult roles after his seven-year stint as J K Rowling’s world famous boy wizard.
Radcliffe stars as London based lawyer and widower Arthur Kipps, who is commissioned to travel up the country to Eel Marsh house, a lonely building on its own island where a woman has died and her papers need looking through.
After receiving a rather frosty reception in the local village, he makes his way to the house. Access to the house is cut off by the tide, and as Kipps is stuck there for the night, he soon learns that there is a lot more to the rumours that the house is haunted than first thought.
The film is gripping and seriously spooky from the outset, and the scares don’t lay off all the way through. This film is definitely for you if you like the thrill of jumping out of your skin on a regular basis.
Some of the scenes are risky for the 12A rating it has been given, so prepare yourself for possessed children and ghostly goings on galore. Particularly freaky are the porcelain dolls and mechanical animals that the film loves to close in on.
This is Hammer’s first big hit in a long time and is based on the play by Susan Hill, which is still going strong in the west end of London. The film definitely makes the story more vivid and sticks roughly to the original storyline. If you love a scare, then “The Woman in Black” is a must see.