The Woman in Black (2012)

This movie scared the crap out of me. Seriously. I have read this play back when I was in college, but that was about 10 years ago now (I'm very, very old) so I vaguely remembered some creepy monologues about seeing a ghost at a creepy old house, but that's about it, so I wasn't sure what I was getting into, what with Harry Potter playing the lead and all (just kidding Daniel Radcliffe, you did a good job in this movie) but I enjoy ghost movies (where by "enjoy" I mean weep in terror at) so I decided to give it a whirl.

First of all, the opening sequence in this movie is great, and it's disturbing and creepy and sad even without any gore (PG-13 and all). I'm actually impressed the filmmakers were willing to show as much of what they did in this movie, since seeing little kids doing some of what they do in this movie might cause a lot of controversy. For me, it just added to the aura of sadness and depression that shrouded the whole film. I felt for the poor guy who was the lead character, trying to do his job in spite of a lot of sadness and harsh difficulties in his life, and I kind of wanted to stab his boss in the face for sending him off to handle the estate of a dead woman who lived in a creepy old house that might be cursed. Hasn't he suffered enough?

The ghost effects and the jump scares might be tedious for some, but they always work on me, and the movie has such a sad story aside from all the special effects that it kept me engaged enough to jump every time. If I die of a heart attack upon subsequent viewings of this movie, I'm going to haunt the filmmakers. The plot gets a tad repetitive, since the movie conveniently sends in a crazy old woman to helpfully give us the backstory about an hour from the end of the movie, but if anyone hasn't figured out what's going on by that time, I'd be surprised. Also the lead character's harebrained scheme to try and stop the ghost is ridiculously dangerous and not likely to work. Hasn't he ever watched a horror movie before? Dude. I thought of three better plans on my own while sitting on my couch watching the movie. He sucks at this stuff. But aside from those little minor quibbles, this movie was creepy, atmospheric, and chilling, and I enjoyed it very much (I say that until I'm trying to go to sleep later and I cower in bed listening for ghosts in the house).