The Woman in Black

Rated: PG-13 for thematic material and violence/disturbing images
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Ciaran Hinds, Janet McTeer, David Burke, Shaun Dooley
Running Time: 1hr, 35 min.

“During afternoon tea, there’s a shift in the air.
A bone-trembling chill that tells you she’s there.
There are those who believe the whole town is cursed.
But the house in the marsh is by far the worst.
What she wants is unknown, but she always comes back.
The specter of darkness.
The woman in black.”

— The Woman in Black trailer, ©2011 CBS Films

My heart was still pounding for a good several minutes after the movie ended.

Daniel Radcliffe stars as a widowed solicitor sent to a remote village in northern England to settle the estate of a recently deceased woman. The townspeople want nothing to do with him once they find out his business there. But why?

Just as he begins to unravel the mystery, tragedy strikes, and the village is forced to acknowledge its terrible fate.

This is a good, old-fashioned Gothic ghost story. Abandoned old mansion. Mysterious deaths. Creepy shadows. The PG-13 rating is spot on. We brought our 12-year-old son, but that is because he is used to scary, Gothic stuff, and we are an Edgar Allan Poe/Tim Burton/Halloween-throughout-the-year sort of family.

There were definitely some tense moments and several things that could haunt a younger child’s psyche for quite some time and cause nightmares. The reason the woman in black comes back to the village could be pretty scary for younger children.

I would say leave the young ones at home, but, by all means, bring your 12+ kids if they enjoy a good scare, and have a frightfully good time.

I know I did.



Reviewed by Karen Berner