Yesterday I went to see The Woman in Black, a 2012 horror-thriller film directed by James Watkins and written by Jane Goldman, starring Daniel Radcliff. It is a story based on Susan Hill's novel of the Same Name.

The film had all the typical conventions of a thriller/horror, set in an old abandoned mansion, covered in cobwebs and full of dark corridors leading to strange mysterious rooms. It was a very jumpy film often using the loud screeching of a crow to scare the audience into thinking its the Woman in Black. The film was exactly what I expected it to be, very scary and disturbing especially when showing clips of the children killing themselves. For example in the opening scene it showed three children, girls, playing with their dolls and having a tea party. Then unexpectedly the girls looked up, with a glazed look on their faces. They dropped their toys and began to walk towards the windows, crushing their dolls beneath their feet. Then as they approached the window they stopped, twisted the handle and jumped. It was a very horrific opening scene but was a great way to capture the attention of the audience, as we then wanted to learn the cause of these events.

The music and sound effects, I felt, played a very important part to the film. The loud banging of the rocking chair built up so much tension in the audience, as we were yet to discover what the noise was, coming from a door which would not open. Also the noise of the music boxes and toys in the nursery created such a creepy atmosphere, the innocence of children mixed with the horrors of the house was pretty terrifying. Also the shrill cold voice of the Woman in Black repeating the words 'I will never forgive' was very scary and I found myself literally hiding behind my coat, I'm not great with scary films, I was shocked to discover that it was a 12A!

Here is the trailer of the film, which shows you some of the aspects mentioned above..