The Woman in Black [dir. Herbert Wise]

This is not the 2012 Daniel Radcliffe movie, but a 1989 British tele-film adaptation of the same source novel by Susan Hill. I got the film on blu-ray as a blind-buy, because I love old-fashioned ghost stories and the screenplay being done by Nigel Kneale (Quatermass, The Stone Tapes) was a major attraction.

Analogous to the horror classic Dracula, the story begins with young London solicitor and family man Arthur Kidd (Adrian Rawlings) traveling on his employer's express instructions to a distant coastal town in northern England on a legal errand. He has been ordered to collect and record all the personal documents of the recently deceased Mrs. Drablow, an old widow that lived in a solitary hous, smack in the middle of a mist-covered marsh. The local people Kidd meets with seem to have some strong opinions about Eel Marsh House, as the place is called, none of them complimentary. Naturally he puts it down to local superstition and after all, he must do his duty if he expects to "get along".

Access to the house from the town is restricted by the movements of the tides, and once the water rolls in, he is effectively alone on an island. No surprise then that he is rattled by the sight of the unnaturally pale spiteful looking 'Woman in Black' who other people in the town refused to acknowledge the presence of. Going through the records of the departed Mrs. Bradlow while also encountering some other unnerving incidents in the house, Kidd comes across some singular aspects of her past. These are corroborated by Mr. Toovey (Bernard Hepton), the helpful elderly local landowner who seems to know more of the matter than he initially let on. Does Arthur escape from this seemingly malevolent place, and does the evil that he perceives permit him to go unscathed, forms the rest of the spooky narrative.

The tricks of eerie illusion The Woman in Black uses are not new, but they are used effectively and sparingly, and serve its modest aims well enough. There is just enough explanation offered as to serve by way of narrative. Possibly as a consequence of the limitations of broadcast time, the film does not indulge in excess of backstory  or try to ascribe a moral compass to its supernatural element, which many newer horror films seem all too eager to. Helped immeasurably by the sumptuous early 20th century period settings (art director John Ralph)and the atmospheric cinematography (Michael Davis), this is essentially a feature of mood, not events. The end-product is a well-crafted spooky 100 odd min that holds your attention and gives you a few good chills on the way

 A couple of words about the UK blu-ray release from Network. The HD video quality is superb, coming off a recent restoration, and looking probably better than in its original TV showing. The colors, whether the muted hues of the marsh locations or the more vibrant warm hues of the interiors, are rendered excellently. The lossless mono sound is fairly solid and English HoH subtitles are provided. The major extra is a lively commentary track with genre aficionados Kim Newman and Mark Gatiss, and actor Andy Nyman who played a small role in the film.