Review by Gary Tooze

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Description: A young lawyer travels to a remote village where he discovers the vengeful ghost of a scorned woman is terrorizing the locals.

***

Daniel Radcliffe stars as a lawyer settling the finalities of a deceased client's estate when he begins to suspect a... mysterious ghost is haunting the premises. Eden Lake's James Watkins directs from a script by Jane Goldman, who adapts from Susan Hill's novel.

***

Based on the classic ghost story, The Woman In Black tells the tale of Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe), a lawyer who is forced to leave his young son and travel to a remote village to attend to the affairs of the recently deceased owner of Eel Marsh House.
Working alone in the old mansion, Kipps begins to uncover the town's tragic and tortured secrets and his fears escalate when he discovers that local children have been disappearing under mysterious circumstances. When those closest to him become threatened by the vengeful woman in black, Kipps must find a way to break the cycle of terror.

 

 

The Film:

Excerpt from Manohla Dargis at the NY Times located HERE

Image :    NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

The Woman in Black is treated to a solid transfer on Blu-ray from CBS.  The image quality supports the film's visual style - the creeping darkness and adept period art direction.  Detail - when called upon - is crisp. This is only single-layered but does the job with a modest bitrate. Colors reflect accuracy - skin tones seem true and contrast exhibits healthy black levels. There is no noise although there are many dark sequences in the film. This Blu-ray has a consistency and showcases some depth.  I suspect this is an accurate representation of the film's appearance. Effects seem realistic and the, often, foggy aura is maintained well by the visuals without appearing too staged.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Equal to the adept video is a DTS-HD Master 5.1 track at 2144 kbps. Effects are reasonably crisp and separation can be sharp and punchy. Marco Beltrami has composed an atmospheric score looming about the Home Theater space - his impressive work includes 2011's The Thing, In the Electric Mist and The Hurt Locker. The lossless track does well in supporting the film presentation. There are optional subtitles and my Momitsu has identified it as being a region 'A' although it will be sold in region 'B' as well with, presumably, a similar transfer.

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BOTTOM LINE:
I thought some critics were a little harsh on The Woman in Black. I enjoyed it although it may seem ineffectual, or maybe over-produced, in certain areas. This would be my same complaint of what Harry Potter films I've seen.  No doubt though - there is some entertainment here and the Blu-ray, while not excelling in any one area, does its job with solid a/v and an interesting commentary. The Woman in Black won't be cinematically memorable but is superior to a lot of fluff we are exposed to nowadays at the theater - and, of course, wonderful to see the return of Hammer Films! 

Gary Tooze

May 16th, 2012