The Woman in Black (1989): Supernatual Chiller à la Quatermass (Review)

England, 1923. A young London solicitor, Arthur Kidd (Adrian Rawlings), is sent to a small seaside town where a client, Mrs Drablow, has just died. His instructions are to arrange for the cataloguing and sale of her possessions. Whilst at her funeral, where the only other attendee is the estate agent selling her house, he sees a woman wearing black clothing nearby. But the estate agent refuses to even acknowledge her presence and is clearly terrified by the thought of it. What’s more, it appears that everyone Kidd meets is reluctant to tell him about Mrs Drablow or her house, Marsh House. The estate agent won’t even go near it. His excuse is that he doesn’t have the time, but his visible fear betrays him.

Still, a job is a job. The inventory won’t write itself. So Kidd heads over to Marsh House to start work, to discover just who the mourner at the funeral was, and to really wish that he hadn’t.

Susan Hill’s novel The Woman in Black has become a bit of a cultural landmark in horror. A stage version has been running in London’s West End continuously since 1989 (the second longest-running non-musical play in West End history). Meanwhile, Daniel Radcliffe starred in a recent 2012 film adaptation, which became the highest-grossing British horror film in twenty years. Not so well known, though, is this made-for-TV adaptation, originally broadcast at Christmas in 1989. This is a bit of a pity, not least because the screenplay was written by Nigel Kneale. Kneale has long been popular amongst cult horror fans; he created Professor Quatermass (an undeniable influence on the development of Doctor Who) and wrote the striking and underrated TV horror story The Stone Tape.

The screenplay of The Woman in Black bares many of his fingerprints. Stylistically, there is the reliance on mounting dread rather than immediate shock, along with the sense that things are going wrong right from the beginning; Kidd’s superior is strangely keen that Kidd should go to the town of Crythin Gifford rather than going himself, especially since he explicitly believes that Kidd isn’t a good solicitor. But Kneale doesn’t rest content with creeping unease, and we do eventually reach a crisis bad enough to leave Kidd with what is clearly PTSD. Paranoia is another theme, as Kidd is the only person in Crythin Gifford who doesn’t have at least some idea of what’s been happening. Even Sam Toovey, Kidd’s greatest ally in the town, isn’t telling him everything. Whether it’s simply because they are trying to protect themselves or because they are treating Kidd as some kind of sacrificial victim is never made clear, and the motives might even be different for each person.

There is also Kneale’s emphasis on technology, which continues both from The Stone Tape and the Quatermass stories. Despite its isolation, Marsh House has been fitted with an electric generator. After an unnerving encounter with the Woman in Black, Kidd goes back inside the house and starts switching all the lights on. Ostensibly this is because he has to look over all the rooms, but it is also a transparent attempt to ward off ghosts with electric light. Mrs Drablow also leaves behind a dictaphone, which both provides clues to the mystery and gives Kidd a way of recording his experiences.

There is even a prominent plot point involving the repeating noise of a tragedy, which is strongly reminiscent of The Stone Tape. But the reason for the repetition is completely different in The Woman in Black, and it is tied a phantom who is incapable of letting go of the past. The haunting has something to do with children; soon after seeing the Woman in Black for the first time, Kidd saves the life of a child who is about to be crushed to death by a pile of logs. Because of this connection, children become another prominent theme of the story. Unlike in the novel, Kidd is already the father of two children when he comes to Crythin Gifford, and he appears to be fond of children in general. Toovey implies that to his regret he’s never had children, but a headstone in the local graveyard shows otherwise. Kidd’s superior thinks Kidd was wrong to have children so early. A town local is utterly unmoved by a child’s near death. In fact, everyone has an opinion about children or deals with them in some way, and it’s surprising that the theme ends up rather underdeveloped given its presence. Though a particular child plays an important role when the crisis hits, we aren’t given anything interesting that ties the general theme of children together.

The performances in The Woman in Black are all good. particularly from Rawlins and Bernard Hepton as Sam Toovey. David Ryall also makes the most of a small role as Kidd’s superior, Sweetman – pompous, authoritarian, and trying very hard not to show his fear of Crythin Gifford. Unfortunately, the direction and cinematography can’t carry the weight of the screenplay, being on the whole too unimaginative and too straightforward to produce the dread that the screenplay requires. In the screenplay, sea mist is something you should fear, but as filmed it just means you can’t see through it. Any fear is generated only by Rawlins’s acting and the sound production. The Woman in Black herself is a woman in make-up, despite Pauline Moran’s effort to make her something more. She becomes more frightening for what she represents, as opposed to what we see on screen.

Kneale isn’t completely off the hook either, because of the screenplay’s ending. Kneale changes it in significant ways from the novel, and whilst it makes thematic sense, it feels like it is simply bolted on to the rest of the story rather than being an integral part of it. It also requires Kidd to do something he never would have done after his nightmare and stay in Crythin Gifford, and so ends up being weaker than the rest of the story.

Ultimately, The Woman in Black is an uneven piece. There’s plenty in it to enjoy, but its faults prevent it from rising to be a classic ghost story for television.

Thank you for reading our review of The Woman in Black (1989)

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