 – Customer review on 03/12/2006
The Woman In Black is a good, old-fashioned Victorian ghost story, full of oppression, menace and a dreadful anticipation. Arthur Kipps is a junior solicitor assigned the task of travelling to dilapidated Eel Marsh House, in order to settle the affairs of the recently deceased Mrs Alice Drablow. The house is situated in the middle of a salt marsh, inaccessible for much of the day, and then only via the Nine Lives Causeway. Mrs Drablow lived very much alone, and during his work young Mr Kipps begins to discover that the elderly widow's past holds many tragic secrets, some of which are best left undisturbed.
The ghost of the title, the dreaded woman in black, is a truly horrifying presence, always appearing just when the story has lulled you into a false sense of security, and sometimes with a ferocity that is bowel-looseningly frightening. I've read and watched no end of stories involving ghosts, witches, vampires and werewolves, and the majority of them have me sniggering behind my hand after the first ten minutes. This book, and the 1989 made-for-TV film of the same name, directed by Herbert Wise, are notable exceptions. In fact, the film is so intense that I've seen people scurry from the room rather than prolong the agony.
Read the book. Watch the film. And do both alone, and in the dark. I dare you.
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