[HorrorScience] The Woman in Black (1989)

We are launching a new section in ComboGamer, which will try to fantastic and horror cinema, and in which we will carry out a mini analysis of a film of the genre every Sunday. The first?The Woman in Black, for no particular reason, it's just that I just saw it.

Why do I use the term “mini-analysis”?

• Because unlike an exhaustive analysis that includes evaluating all the aspects that make up a film, these mini-analyses will contain the most relevant information about the title analyzed, also adding the personal opinion of the editor.

Is this film, and the following ones to be analyzed, chosen for any specific reason?

• None. Movies of the genre will be analyzed generally at random, although if you want us to carry out the analysis of a particular movie, you can leave a comment on this same analysis or contact us directly at: [email protected]

The Woman in Black is mainly about ghosts. The story tells us about a lawyer who works for an important firm, whose boss sends him on a trip to the coastal town of Crythin Gifford to take charge of the sale of a large house and collect all the important documents found in it, left by an elderly widow who recently died and who was a very important client of the law firm she works for Arthur Kidd, our protagonist.

Although Mr. Kidd is not happy with the assigned task, he agrees to make the trip due to the insistence and treatment by his boss, who gives him a lecture on what must be done in order to grow professionally.

Upon arriving in town, Arthur realizes that the townspeople are reluctant to talk about the late widow. Alice Drablow, which together with other facts gives us to understand that the old woman lacked friends because of something that happened in the past and remains a mystery for much of the film.

Even more mysterious is the fact that the townspeople try with subtle warnings to discourage Arthur from visiting the old woman's house, subtleties to which the lawyer does not pay much attention and decides to quickly finish his work.

It is there, in Eel Marsh House (Eel Swamp House), an old house in a desolate and isolated part of Crythin Gifford reached by a winding path through the swamp and only accessible at low tide, which Mr. Kidd encounters The Woman in Black, begins to have increasingly creepy visions, and little by little discovers the old woman's horrible past.

This film is based on the novel of the same name by the English writer Susan Hill, published in 1983, and is the first adaptation of this story to film. The book was adapted into a play, two radio soap operas, and a 2012 film version starring Daniel Radcliffe ('Harry Potter).

Nigel Kneale has done a very good job adapting the novel to film, although he has made one of the most typical mistakes in novel adaptations to film: change the ending. Although what happens has the same impact, the circumstances that cause the final event are different, and it turns a plausible fact (that of the book) into one that is accepted, but lacks realism.

Other minor changes occur in the names of two characters: Arthur Kidd, the protagonist of this story, has his last name changed. The original is Arthur Kipps. The same goes for Sam Toovey, whose original name is Sam Daily.

In the visual section we are looking at a film of evident low budget, and it is normal in this case, since it is a production for the British television network ITV. This is especially noticeable in the calidad de la imagen, que hace parecer a esta película como una producción mucho más antigua de lo que realmente es (parece de los años ’70 y no de final de los ’80), pero en mi opinión este detalle no ha hecho más que favorecer el aspecto general de la cinta.

La música es acorde en todo momento a las imágenes, pero es insustancial y francamente olvidable.

Los sustos están donde deben estar, y el filme utiliza las visiones, el sonido, y el deterioro psicológico del protagonista como recursos para provocar miedo en el espectador. El gore (término utilizado para referirse a la inclusión de sangre, fluidos del cuerpo y pequeños trozos de carne de manera explícita) es inexistente en esta obra, y es algo de agradecer en esta historia, en donde el uso de escenas con gore gratuito hubiera arruinado la experiencia visual.

Tres datos curiosos sobre The Woman in Black:

• Crythin Gifford es una ciudad ficticia, ambientada en Inglaterra, por si os lo preguntásteis.
• La actriz Fiona Walter (Sra. Toovey) es la esposa del director, Herbert Wise.
• En la estación del tren, cerca del final de la película, se ve al fondo una marquesina sobre una casa que dice «H. Wise Coal & Core Merchant» (H. Wise, mercader de carbón). Obviamente, H. Wise es Herbert Wise, el director de la película, quien al parecer está tan orgulloso de sí mismo como para ponerse un cartel con su nombre en el escenario.

Como he comentado anteriormente, existe una versión de esta historia llevada al cine en 2012, con Daniel Radcliffe como protagonista y un presupuesto millonario para su realización. A pesar de contar con efectos visuales y una calidad de imagen muy superiores en calidad comparándola con la película de 1983, es la más antigua la que resulta más efectiva en su propósito de transmitirnos miedo. Y no es de extrañar: la versión más moderna toma los personajes y algunos detalles de la novela original, y los usa como base para narrar una historia distinta y adaptada a los estándares actuales del cine de terror con alguna estrella del cine en el papel protagónico.