I decided to take advantage of the free tickets we were offering to the new Daniel Radcliffe movie, The Woman in Black, and send myself. I enjoy a good gothic ghost /horror story, but mostly I was interested in seeing how Daniel acquits himself post Harry Potter. I am a fan of the Potter movies (well, most of them), but I always thought that Daniel, as Harry was – well--- a little one dimensional. I am not sure if this was his young age and total lack of experience when starting, the direction he was given, or his style. So I was eager to see this performance..

As I said I like gothic, but I am coming to the conclusion that if you’ve seen about five, you’ve likely seen them all! Madwomen in the attic, tormented spouses, angelic faced children, and souls that simply refuse to cross over. So it was really no surprise that the plot followed a pretty well traveled trajectory. Daniel was convincing enough playing 'tormented spouse' and I could believe he had a four year old child. However, as the story progressed and the inevitable ‘gotchas’ occurred, I kept on looking around for Hermione, Ron and a wand to make an appearance to help get him out of the situation. My conclusion- he was- well---a little one dimensional.

Here is a review from someone else who saw the movie:

I scored a couple of your free passes to Woman in Black- thanks for the chances for these and you asked people to write if they went to it, so just thought I’d write what I thought of it. I haven’t seen a lot of movies like this- usually lots more horror kind of stuff but it did a pretty good job of scaring me anyways. I thought Radcliffe was pretty good- he was kind of creepy too. And I liked the ending- I guess there was really only two ways it could end and I kind of guessed wrong, so it surprised me. If you like being kind of scared, but don’t like the real gross stuff this is pretty good fun.

For a few more gothic choices, try any of these from our collection.

The Innocents- based on the Henry James story, Turn of the Screw.

Jane Eyre- there are many versions but I like the original with Orson Wells and Fontaine from 1944 or the 1986 with Ciaran Hinds and Samantha Morton. You’ll know Hinds when you see him- he is actually also in The Woman in Black.

Wuthering Heights-again, lots of versions to choose from

Rebecca- the best one is with Olivier and Fontaine and directed by Hitchcock.

Gaslight- with Ingrid Berman and Charles Boyer.

Frankenstein-the version that is most true to the original Mary Shelley literary creation happens to also be my fave version - it is with the multi talented Kenneth Branagh who wrote, directed and starred and the monster is played convincingly by Robert deNiro. From 2004.