The Woman In Black

One of the UK poster images for The Woman In Black (2012)

I never thought I'd say this, but I'm actually looking forward to The Woman In Black.  Over the last decade, we have been treated to an array of ghost stories such as El Orfanato which, despite good press and good box office, did little to excite me.  Yet Hammer's return to a period-set Yorkshire is surely enough to get anyone's juices flowing.

Admittedly, my prejudice against ghost stories has no real grounding, although my love of 1980s schlock and prosthetic effects probably has something to do with it.  But, for The Woman in Black, we have the seasoned James Watkins in the director's chair, and I am very curious to see if he can transfer the wonderful job he did with the decidedly nasty Eden Lake, to a period-set chiller.

It has been suggested that The Woman In Black marks the 'true' return of Hammer films: a statement that has preceded almost every Hammer production since the company was re-established proper in 2007.  In fact, it is interesting to go back through newspaper articles/reviews which consider Hammer's other recent films Beyond the Rave, Let Me In, The Resident and Wake Wood, to see how journalists in some (but not in all, it must be said) cases herald each film separately as Hammer returning to their 'roots': often over-looking the other films, or, as was often the case with Let Me In, failing to identify it as a Hammer production at all (Stephen King, most famously, stated that Let Me In was :"the best American horror film in the last 20 years": a statement that surely works against Hammer's once profoundly 'British' branding). [Nb. By the same token, Let Me In was also heralded by some as the 'true' return of Hammer in some press coverage, with the web-serial Beyond the Rave being ignored completely.]

British quad for Hammer's Brides of Dracula (1960)

It is no coincidence that The Woman in Black has made a $20m killing at the US box-office in its opening weekend.  It wouldn't be unreasonable to suggest, however, that this has little to do with Hammer's involvement, but more to do with the casting of Daniel Radcliffe in his first post-Harry Potter role (in what arguably appears to be a similarly Gothic milieu to the Potter films), alongside Ciaran Hinds from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (which grossed $1.33b world-wide; the highest grossing film in the HP series).  After all, the teens-twenties audience who will be flocking to see this film, will likely be the twelve and thirteen year-olds who have been with Radcliffe since The Philosopher's Stone, who have now come of age, and want to see Harry in more threatening situations (the Harry Potter films did get considerably darker towards the end of the series, right?).  Furthermore, in the posters that I have seen (from the UK at least), there doesn't seem to be much evidence of Hammer at all, but rather, as the image that accompanies this blog suggests, a LOT of Daniel Radcliffe.

In terms of box office success, The Woman In Black could indeed be the 'true' return of Hammer as a producer of commercial films for the youth market: in short, as it once was.  However, whether or not this means there will be a sustained popular Gothic revival, or another Hammer film in a vein similar to this, remains to be seen.  I await with bated breath!