Let's be realistic.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Adrian Rawlins plays Arthur Kidd a solicitor who has been sent by his firm to settle the estate of Alice Drablow who has just passed away. Kidd looks at this as a chance to impress the firm with dreams of receiving a partnership. Soon thereafter he witnesses a dark and mysterious woman in black. He also hears horrible noises and voices when near the Nine Lives Causeway (aptly named) that leads to the isolated house. Kidd works on unwinding the mystery of the home.This is a TV movie, but I actually find it scarier than most over done Hollywood horror movies. They don't do it with buckets of blood, but rather with perhaps more subtlety, with sounds and a ghost story that takes time to develop, but is well worth the wait.I really do give screenwriter Nigel Kneale and director Herbert Wise credit for taking the Susan Hill novel which was a pretty darn good horror story and creating this great horror movie that does not stray that far from the novel (if my memory serves correct). I do apologize as I certainly do not remember everything from the novel as I read it a few years back, but I do remember that I really enjoyed it. Had me on the edge of my seat, which this movie does.Highly recommended to those who love a good ghost story.

Several horror fanatics active on this website, as well as more acclaimed film critics all over the world, are often referring to "The Woman in Black" as the best and most atmospheric made-for-TV horror/thriller ever accomplished. Well, guess what, they are quite right! Herbert Wise's film, based on the stunning novel by Susan Hill and turned into a screenplay by the phenomenal Nigel Kneale (who also created the original "The Quatermass Experiment"), is an incredibly slow-brooding but hyper-unsettling tale that crawls underneath your skin and haunts your memories forever. The strongest assets of "Woman in Black", apart from the flawless script, are undoubtedly the tour-de-force performance of lead actor Adrian Rawlins, the carefully elected filming locations & set-pieces and the continuously ominous ambiance with only a few (but highly effective) fright-moments. Herbert Wise particularly differentiates his film from the rest with two specific qualities that aren't frequently featuring in the horror genre, namely patience and eye for detail. The patience that Wise demonstrates in building up the tension is praiseworthy, to say the least, and the details can be illustrated via a few examples, like the spooky mansion only being accessible during low tide or the poetic beauty of mysterious woman meandering amidst tombstones. What the film doesn't feature, however, is graphic violence or gory make-up effects, but like only the case in the very best horror movies, you're not missing these. More recently, in 2012, James Watkins ("Eden Lake") directed a cinematic version starring Daniel Radcliffe ("Harry Potter" all grown up) as the tormented solicitor. The large-budgeted interpretation of Hill's novel is also adequate, but for experiencing the most authentic ghost-vibes, I advise to seek out this version as well.

I have a huge love affair with the Woman in Black, in order I saw the stage play first, then read the book, then this version, and finally the Hammer film. In my humble opinion this is the best version, it is incredibly dark, scary, atmospheric, gloriously produced and beautifully acted. Adrian Rawlins is utterly fantastic in the lead as Arthur Kidd.Pauline Moran adds a mass of fear and terror into the film, her appearances strike true terror into the viewer. The music, lighting and camera-work all crank up the tension and sinister feel too.This adaptation is shamefully overlooked, it deserves so much to be seen by a much wider audience, it boasts a subtlety that the update, which I really enjoyed, didn't have.If you've not seen it, do what you can to get hold of a copy, if you've seen it. The woman in Black is my favourite Ghost story of all time, and this is a tremendous adaptation. Spectacular, atmospheric chiller.10/10

OK, so there is a new version in Cinemas right now. Its what made me go find this the original version of the book brought to the big screen. Please don't think me a spoil sport awarding the score I have as I do own a formidable library of what I hope are some of the best films made! I try daily to find and see great movies. OK...the movie...It is filmed in what looks like video for a start. The style also lends somehow to the period. It looks OLD! It starts well enough with great sets, clothes and locations. Everyone so far looks and sounds the part. Its eerie. Its misty. It has the right weird locals (see American Werewolf in London) It builds nicely. There is some suspense there. There is no sign of it being bad for quite a while....there is a graveyard sequence that only helps stoke the imagination into thinking this could be a gem. I mean it is being re made by a big Hollywood studio an a massive budget. It moves to a house on an island where the recently deceased lady who's accounts the solicitor has to root through and make sense of lived. This is when it all becomes quite apparent that the effects and acting department...I mean producing and Direction is blatantly not on the ball. The small budget spent on actors shows through. It goes from bad to worse. When does this happen? Well in what I have read to be the most chilling scene in the movie. THE ONLY chilling (can you call it chilling after seeing it) scene in the movie. The make up is so awful!! The acting gets worse. The story more unbelievable. Maybe it was heavily edited or just badly. It starts to make little sense. The ending which I won't spoil is...well...it left me open mouthed as to why I had bothered to watch a movie that I should have first looked up properly in critics reviews. As I have seen no really great critics had said anything on it! OK it got a 7.4! That is why I felt obliged to warn some other poor viewer not to waste time seeing this! The new 2012 movie looks great, it also seems to be truer to the original book. Watch this at your peril!!!