Movie Review: The Woman In Black (2012)

Title: The Woman in Black

Director: James Watkins

Year Released: 2012

Running Time: 95mins

Classification: M

Genre: Horror, Drama, Thriller

After reading the book, I decided to give the 2012 The Woman in Black movie a try. The movie did not stay completely true to the book, however the changes made improved the process of the storyline and in some ways gave the audience a restful ending (or maybe just for me).

*I've also done a review on the book written by Susan Hill for anyone who is interested. I strongly suggest you read the book first before watching the movie.*

Unlike the book, the movie starts straight in the midst of the horror with the deaths of 3 children and the presence of the woman in black. The genre is set and the mystery begins.

Daniel Radcliffe portrays a convincing Arthur Kipps, characteristically. Thanks to Radcliffe’s previous movies (namely Harry Potter), appearance wise he looks too short to be a man and too young to have a child however as the movie progresses, his appearance is forgotten, replaced by his acting

There are some minor changes to the characters in the movie and some added surprises that, if you are the fan of the book, may or may not like. I personally thought the changes gave the movie more to play on and had to be done to make the movie longer and more visually interesting.

The biggest change is the existence of Arthur’s son. Arthur’s wife dies from childbirth and leaves him with their son. This happens at the start of the story and it is his son who propels the story further than the ending written in the book. (For those who haven't read the book, Arthur's son is not born until the end of the story).

In the book, Arthur lacks action and is left frightened; in the movie he attempts to solve the horror to save his son. To do this, the script writers included a thorough explanation of the woman’s history and existence and showed the consequences when one meddles with her. 

I preferred the changes. The book was brief and did not have as much death as a horror reader would have liked. I also preferred the ending. The ending can be considered happy depending on how you look at it. There is proper finish to Arthur’s story. As for the woman, it can not be sure what truly happens to her.

The actors, houses, locations are all perfect for the era and Eel Marsh House looks exactly as described in the book. Even the marsh lands look perfect. The colour of the movie stays dimly light and foggy, blending into the costumes.

This horror film plays heavily on noise. Without the sudden knocking, whispering and scary music, this movie would not be a horror. The noises were perfectly timed and will definitely make the audience jump in their seats. 

Just remember, if you are looking for something a bit more visually frightening you might want to skip this movie.

I spent most of the movie with my eyes under the pillow and hands clapped around my ears (I hate scary films). The reason I continued watching was to see why the woman did the things she did (even though I have read the book, the movie explained this more clearly with some extra touches) and how everything was resolved. I was much more satisfied with this altered story then the book. 

As much as I enjoyed the book, I preferred the altered storyline of the movie. The storyline in the book was simpler and was perfect for a short novel. For a movie, the changes enhanced what the book already had and added more dimensions.

This movie is not for everyone. For anyone who likes the more mystery horror stories, I suggest you give it a try but if you are looking for something fast-paced with more gore, try something else (you will most likely find this movie boring).

Terri's Rating: 3.5/5

I do not like scary movies, so the rating is based predominately on the storyline and the cinematic effects.

Book Review: The Study Series

Title: Poison Study, Magic Study and Fire Study

Author: Maria V Snyder
Year Published: 2005-2008
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult

Yelena is a convicted murderer. On the day of her execution, she is given a choice: take the noose or become food taster for the Commander of Ixia. Naturally, she chooses the latter. At the palace, she is trained to taste for poisons by Valek, the Commander’s loyal and mysterious Chief of Security. To prevent Yelena’s escape, Valek poisons her with Butterfly’s Dust – from then on, she must return to him for a daily dose of the antidote or else face a painful death as the Butterfly’s Dust takes effect.

So begins Poison Study, the first book in Maria V Snyder’s Study Series (also known as the Yelena Zaltana Novels). It’s an interesting premise, rife with potential. As Yelena adjusts to her new life, she meets General Brazell, father of the man she killed, and a magician from the neighbouring country of Sitia, who senses Yelena’s magic – magic being outlawed in Ixia. How can she stay safe? Who can she trust? There’s a lot of tension in this novel, which gives it an enjoyable, exciting sort of mood.

Still, the lack of poisons in a book called Poison Study is disappointing. There is only a brief period of poison taster training before the narrative drifts into Yelena learning to fight, Yelena being suspicious of General Brazell and Yelena taking baths. There isn’t much “plot”; the action, as it is, is mostly character-driven. That brings me to Yelena herself. She’s an Action Girl, and I’ll admit I didn’t like her at first – I felt she had a modern, misplaced sense of entitlement, which was bold considering she’s easily replaceable. However, over time, I came to appreciate her good qualities – she’s strong, frank, hard-working and wants to help people.

One of the best parts of the book is the romance. It’s not a surprise that Valek becomes a love interest, and the captor/captive dynamic makes it a bit more interesting. Thankfully, there’s no insta-love, so it was good to see their relationship actually develop. Valek himself is painted as a devoted and manly badass, and despite his curly shoulder-length hair (wat), he was probably my favourite character and I’m sure many of you will swoon for him (even though he's a pretty shady guy when you think about it).

While Poison Study works as a standalone, its sequels, Magic Study and Fire Study do not. The plot from Magic Study doesn’t even finish, meaning you’ll have to read Fire Study for closure. Spoiler alert: at the end of Poison Study, Yelena lives. She decides to go to Sitia to learn to control her magic. Like its predecessor, both Magic Study and Fire Study lack actual study of magic or fire. Instead, the books are mostly about how Yelena hunts down an evil magician who rapes, tortures and murders girls to steal their magic.

Like many others, I felt that the series weakened with each book. The key issue is the matter of the plot. While the first book deals with Yelena’s struggle to survive, the next two have her playing detective, justice-meter and all-round hero, since no one at all competent exists in her world other than Valek. Yelena’s rape and torture in Book #1 are harrowing, formative events. In Books #2 and #3, rape and torture are used almost gratuitously as drama-adding plot devices. The events of Book #3 are also especially repetitive, with a lot of people travelling around, getting captured and stabbing or being stabbed with the paralysing substance Curare. What makes it worse is how – perhaps due to a lack of personal stakes for Yelena – the antagonist feels like a Monster of the Week, rather than a Big Bad, even though their storyline stretches across two books. Also, while some characters are likeable (eg. Ari and Janco), others are annoyingly one-dimensional (Roze) and one character is outright spin-off bait (Opal Cowan, now featured in The Glass Series).

I had hoped that the world would be built up a bit more, since there are so many interesting concepts at play. It’s not often you read a fantasy set in a socialist military dictatorship like Ixia, but other than a bunch of colour-coded uniforms, you don’t get much exploration of the way it works. The capitalist democracy(?) Sitia, on the other hand, gets a bit more depth in terms of the plains nomads Sandseed clan and jungle tree-dwelling Zaltana clan – but that’s only in terms of their lifestyle, so to speak. You don’t really see how the Sitian government works; we only know there is a Council and that it takes them a long time to make decisions. The only virtue of this, according to Yelena, is how it means that no one person shoulders the blame for mistakes. Also, beggars apparently do not exist in Ixia. Mmm… okay then. It’s a bit too simplistic for my liking, but what can you do?

I think another reason why the sequels aren't as loved is because there is less Valek. Valek and Yelena's romance is one of the highlights of Poison Study and there’s less of that in the sequels. Their relationship also doesn’t seem to develop beyond the stage of becoming a couple. I would have liked to see Snyder explore how their previous captor/captive relationship colours their current one, or maybe something about how Yelena feels conflicted about Valek being an assassin of magicians (ie. people like her). But no. Instead we have one (1) token fight where she calls him out on his murderous ways and she’s portrayed as being in the wrong. Otherwise, every time they meet, they just banter for a bit before their clothes fall off. FYI, after disrobing, the sex scenes comprise, at most, of a vague paragraph about how Yelena feels Valek inside her and how their souls bond. In other words, these scenes adhere to the Twilight school of sexytimes writing, to give you an indication of what they’re like.

Yelena also falls victim to Mary Sue-itis. Big time. She goes from showing magic potential in Book #1 to gaining more and more super special snowflake abilities with each book. Worse is how she seems to disbelieve all the things people say about her. Beautiful? Me? Powerful? Me? Soulfinder? Me? I rolled my eyes so hard and so frequently they almost got stuck at the back of my head. Yelena also makes decisions that don’t seem to make sense, but of course it works out in the end because of course it does. She flip-flops on matters of trust and she only wants to help people if it’s done her way. However, she’s the only character with actual thoughts, so of course she solves all the problems, no matter how nonsensical she may be. The prime example of dumb that’s stuck with me is how she chooses her horse. So she’s just discovered she can talk to a horse (they think in English, apparently, only without auxiliary verbs and without the word “I”). So... how does she think she should choose a horsey companion? Why, by colour of course! It’s like she’s not even trying. And of course she gets the most special horse there is.

The writing in this series is simple. The style is easy-to-read and conversational and the chapters are short, with a tendency to cliff-hang at the end. It’s also the only reason I see for classifying this book as “Young Adult”, since Yelena is already nineteen years old (and Valek’s in his early thirties) and there’s a lot of dark material here (namely, the brutal rapes, tortures and murders). While it’s the sort of prose that’s easy to gobble up, it also felt lazy in parts. Some things I could forgive for being part of Yelena’s thought processes (such as a garment being called “skirt/pants” and Valek wearing a “sneak suit”), but other words and phrases jarred. The language is modern, with “Mr.” and “occupational hazard” being terms I did not expect to see in this world of swords and horses. The most striking instance of this is when Moon Man exclaims “wah-lah!”, which I can only assume is a bastardised form of the French “voila!”. I literally could not believe it and had to read the sentence a few times before it sank in. One last pet peeve is how Valek takes to calling Yelena “love”, using the word at the end of almost every sentence. Rather than sounding romantic, this just reminds me of kindly old British groundskeepers, because I’ve learned from TV that that’s how they speak, innit, love?

The Study Series starts off well. Poison Study is an easy, addictive read with a tantalising romance and tense mood. However, the sequels are less captivating. Yelena becomes a Sue, the romance stalls and the world isn’t as complex as it needs to be. The main conflict is not uninteresting, but the repetitiveness and dumb are really frustrating and sap the life out of things. To sum, the books aren’t unpleasant, but they’re not particularly great either. Still, the glass magic mentioned toward the end sounds interesting, so I may yet get sucked into reading the author’s next series about Opal.

(Note: newer editions of these books include a map at the start. There is also a sequel series for Yelena in the works.)

Alex’s Rating: 3/5

Book Review: The Woman in Black

Title: The Woman in Black
Author: Susan Hill

Year Published: 1983

Genre: Horror, Supernatural, Gothic

A junior solicitor by the name Arthur Kipps is summoned to attend the funeral of Alice Drablow, the sole inhabitant of Eel Marsh House. It is not until he sees a strange woman dressed in black wondering the premises that he realises the cold, dark uneasiness of Eel Marsh House is not just from the marsh lands nearby, but from the presence of something evil.  

*This review is purely from the book itself and not the movie.*

The pros about a horror novel is the reader can stop when it gets too ‘scary’ and, depending on their imagination, the supernatural world can be altered for the ‘less brave’: rather than having a pitch black room, add a tiny window for some extra natural light etc.

That’s how I get through a horror novel; however I did not need to utilise my own advice for The Woman in Black. There is horror and the supernatural, but the main reason to read the book is for the ‘why’ and the 'end'.

The Woman in Black starts with Arthur explaining his present life after the incident before talking about the past. From the first couple of pages it is clear Arthur survived the ordeal and lives a normal life, of course still been haunted by bad memories. By starting like this, the story loses some suspense on what happens to the main character. To find him living normally doesn’t make his experience serious or frightening enough for the story to be terrifying. I would have prefered if Susan Hill had just dived straight into the main story.     

There is a slow build up in the first part of the novel. From his present describing how he wishes not to mention the past and to the start of the past, the story trugs along. Something’s going to happen but when…… I found myself thinking.

Keep in mind this book is fairly short. Only 200 pages so the first half is more than bearable.

The second half is when things get exciting, from hearing strange noises, phantom winds and … obviously…. seeing a woman in black. It is like a dark cloud has descended into that half of the book, refusing to leave and making the reader wanting to know ‘what happened and why’ desperately. I loved the sudden noises, the uncertainty of where the cold wind is from and the old creepy house. Having the story told from Arthur’s voice and his descriptions makes the story more visually and mentally enhancing.

The Woman in Black is set during the Edwardian era (1901-1910) which just adds to the haunting texture of the book.

The ending was a surprise. I like it and I hate it.

Please skip to the next paragraph to avoid spoilers.

The idea of the unsolved evil bothers me. I like that it’s not a happy ending, but I hate the story of this woman still lingering around the town and house taking lives. I think I would have been more content with the story still lingering if Arthur’s future, after the incident, wasn’t so normal and he was mentally shredded from the experience. He would be one of the many that were and will be victims of the Woman in black. 

But on a happy point, the story is set so precisely during a specific era, a specific place and a specific kind of evil that after reading it, the Woman in black should not suddenly (with no help of the imagination) appear in front of you thanks to the story being so well grounded with no link to the present day (unless Eel Marsh House does exist).

I would love it if Susan Hill made this novel longer and maybe stretched the suspense a bit further. I didn’t get enough of the book especially near the end. I enjoyed it very much and would recommend this book to anyone who wants a good scare but does not want to read a long novel.

After reading this, I am so looking forward to seeing the movie.

Terri's Rating: 3.5/5