Konbanwa, minna!
In my previous post, I've told you guys I was going to see the movie 'The Woman in Black', didn't I? Hold on, hold on... Ha! Here it is!
During afternoon tea there is 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 by 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.
I heard it during the second time I watched the trailer. I'm not sure whether this appeared in the movie, because my sisters were banging noise in my ears while I was watching. Okay, here's what I know about the book and the movie. From what I can tell, the movie's much scarier than the book. Why? Well, according to the book of the same title by Susan Hill, Arthur Kipps was there for Alice Dabrow's funeral. And at that time, he noticed a woman dressed all black with sunken cheeks and pale skin, who is being watched by a few kids. Then in the middle of the book, it explained that Jennet Humfrye aka the Woman in Black died of unknown causes, but she died after she watched her son Nathaniel getting killed right in front of her house, the Eel Marsh House. But the book didn't state her sister, Alice (Jennet's sister and Nathaniel's adopted mother) abandoning Nathaniel at a time of need. By the book, the carriage accident killed everybody on board, including Alice. By the movie... I'll tell you when I get to what I'm trying to say.
The beginning of the movie reminded me much of the trailer, but I got extremely freaked out the moment the intro ended. (I'm a total scaredy cat, alright?) It showed 3 little girls having a tea party and their attention was on what I thought was the wall out of shot. Then they all stood up and went to the windows that faced them. They just tread everything that was in their way: their tea set, one of the girls even stepped on her doll's head, severing it completely from its body. (Even I can't do that =-=) After the three girls jumped to their deaths, the cameras zoom out and you can see the Woman in Black in the corner... Talk about deja vu..
I haven't read the book, but I'm dying to read it now because while watching this movie, I couldn't understand a lot of stuff. If I didn't read the Wiki, I wouldn't understand a thing. Thanks Wiki! Ok, back to the point.
The first parts where Arthur Kipps (Dan Radcliffe! ^o^) parted with his son, Joseph weren't very scary. But hey, at least his fangirls got some eye candy! :D When he reached the village, he passed by a home of a family: with two sons and a little daughter. The kids had a staring competition with Arthur but it was stopped by their parents who ushered them back into the house. Arthur then went to Mr Jerome's office, the guy in charge, but sad to say, Jerome told him to leave. He didn't get a place to stay yet, but thanks to his wife, he got a decent place. When he went out, a carriage was already waiting for him, ready to send Arthur back to the train station. With a little bribe, he got the driver to where he has job to do, the Eel Marsh House. Again he has trouble with the transportation. He was supposed to go back at 3, but the driver told him 5- take it or leave. What to do, eh?
So he settled in the house and started to finish the deceased owner, Alice Dabrow's documents. That's when he heard a carriage crashing and a kid screaming. (The Woman in Black was also seen..) He thought there was an accident, so he ran back to the village and headed for the police station. The girl and two boys he saw earlier came in a few seconds after he did, and the girl, Victoria, was sickly pale. Arthur asked her brothers about her condition, and they replied that she had drunken Iye, a chemical that I know nothing of. Arthur called for the constable, but he was too late: Victoria started to upchuck blood and she fell into his arms and died. The townsfolk told him that the reason the girl died was because Arthur had seen the Woman in Black before returning to the village. As Victoria's parents mourned her death, his acquaintance, Sam Daily (Aberfoth Dumbledore, forgot the actor's name :P) drove him away and invited Arthur over for dinner.
At the Daily residence, Arthur met Sam's wife, Elisabeth. According to Sam, Elisabeth is a little off her rocker since their son had died drowning in the sea. Suddenly over dinner, Elisabeth grabbed a knife and started to carve stuff on the table. Sam shouted for his butler and they both sedated her before taking her away to her room. Arthur discreetly got up to see what Elisabeth had carved, which was a stick figure dangling by the neck with a rope by a beam. (Kowaii... =-=||)
Arthur returns back to the Eel Marsh House to finish his work, where he discovers letters between the deceased, Alice and her mentally disoriented sister, Jennet Humfrye. The letters tell him that Alice's son, Nathaniel was actually the biological child of Jennet, but since she was a little mad, they had to take him away and put him under the care of Jennet's closest relative, Alice and her husband. A picture of the Dabrows and Nathaniel was defaced when Arthur isn't looking. He then finds a letter regarding to Nathaniel's death in a carriage accident by the marshlands. Jennet said in her letter that Alice had the chance to save her son, but she was selfish, so she saved herself first and let Nathaniel drown in the marsh. Arthur finds a bunch of old drawings (the types I find in History books) with scribbles like 'God protects me' and 'You coward' and 'You don't deserve him' and a bunch of trolling comments I usually write in my journal.
Among the many letters, Arthur finds a death certificate where Nathaniel, 7 is declared deceased but his body was never recovered. I don't know how this was found out though, but Jennet committed suicide by hanging herself by the beam in the Eel Marsh nursery. Arthur checks the nursery out but the door's locked, which is rather odd, since he has all the keys to all the room in the house. Being completely creeped out, he runs out the front door and sees dead children in the woods that surrounds Eel Marsh, even the three girls that jumped out of the window earlier in the movie. Their eyes were all bloody and they looked so ragged that it scared the life out of me. I guessed it scared Arthur as well, so he ran back inside. I forgot why, but he went back to the nursery door. He twisted the doorknob and the door flew open. The room was full of these creepy old toys and dolls. When Arthur came in, the rocking chair was moving (the cliche of all horror movies: they must have an automatic rocking chair). The toys all started to make the creepy music. He finds the Woman in Black hanging from a roof beam above him. He notices a rip in the wallpaper and tears it apart, revealing the same wallpaper at the back, with the words You Could Have Saved Him written in red paint. Arthur turns to the window and notices its stained with a handprint. He puts his hand there and Jennet's face replaces his reflection, screaming at him. I forgot what came next after that... (Because when the woman started screaming, I hid under the covers)
The next thing I remember is Elisabeth explaining to Arthur that if the Woman in Black is around, the kids will die. Elisabeth's son died after he saw the Woman in Black and under her influence, he walked into the waters , to his demise. Arthur figures out that since Jennet was restrained from seeing her own child, she takes her revenge on the village by taking away their children. He then figures that if he reunites Jennet with Nathaniel, things will be all good. With help from Sam Daily, he hauls the carriage out of the marsh and retrieves the child's dead body. He places Nathaniel in the Eel Marsh house and arranges all the cards for him from Jennet. The Woman in Black appears and screams as she reaches for her son, but all is calm after that.
Being traumatised by the whole scene, Arthur returns early. He meets up with his own son, Joseph at the train station along with his nanny who have come to fetch him. Arthur turns and sees the Woman in Black on the other side of the tracks, but he was too late: Joseph has already walking towards his death, the railway. As the train chugs closer, Arthur lunges in and locks his son in his last embrace before the train dashes into them. Sam, who is still at the platform, sees the many dead children Arthur has seen by the passing train windows- Lucy, Jerome's daughter, who set herself on fire, and even his son who had died by drowning.
Arthur opens his eyes and notices the station has grown dark. Joseph, still in his arms, asks who is the lady behind him. Arthur turns and sees his wife, in a white gown. That's when he and I found out that he and Joseph had died. As they walked away with Stella the wife, the Woman in Black looks on to the audience, turning ever so suddenly to the screen.
So, there you have it! My retelling of the whole movie. My review is here:
What I seriously think about the movie is that one of the critics were right: it's a movie nobody should watch alone. I already freaked out when the three girls jumped out the window, and okay, I admit that I missed a lot of jumpscares that happened in the movie. I don't regret that though, but the movie's sound quality was extremely off, it forced me to wear earpieces. Believe me, that maxed the fear factor up by 110%. Even the slightest of door creaks made me jump. And since my eyes started to run wild, while other people focused on Dan, I focused on the background. I was looking for her, alright? If I saw her, I had a cover headstart of 5 seconds. This movie captured my eyes more than most of the movies I've seen. My senpais said 'Sleepy Hollow' was scary, but after I watched it, it's not at all- it's just extremely gory. The Woman in Black, however, is like the typical supernatural stuff that I search up but this maxed my fear levels so high that whenever I hear a sound, I'd flip everything in range.
I think Dan looks too young for the part. For all I know, Arthur is a married man, and when Dan portrayed Arthur, he looked exactly like how he during the Second Wizarding War, only much well-kept and minus the glasses. Still, Dan gave the audience what they want, and he's a pro actor, so I'm not complaining. I found it quite weird to find Harry Potter transferring from a world of fantasy to a town of crazy psychopathic souls. It was devastating to find out Arthur's son got hit by Jennet too, but Arthur was a victim as well.. He died, darn it!! My feels....
The promotional poster caught my attention. At first, all I see is Dan Radcliffe looking like he was from the 60's, but after I watched the movie, then I realised the Woman in Black was behind him. It's kind of like Brave, at first I only see Merida, but after watching the film, then I see Mordu the bear at the back. The saying was really good: 'What did they see?' I'm definitely going to be haunted whenever somebody says that to me.
Here's my scare of the night: I grabbed an outfit from my closet only to realise it's all black. When I wear it, it looks a lot like a dress. Then the Woman in Black came in my mind. Now I'm scared to look in the mirror. Well, I'm looking for other movies, like the Omen, 4018, maybe something not scary like the Corpse Bride, or Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya.... Till then, wish me good safety!
Bye,
.:MIMI TACHIKAWA:.
~Ajisai HaNa~
