The Woman In Black (2012) I Shall Refrain From Harry Potter Jokes

Let's get this out of the way right now:  Daniel Radcliffe played Harry Potter.

Thanks to his growing up in those eight fine films, it will always be hard for him to not be seen as the teen wizard.  But let's get another thing straight right away...

Daniel Radcliffe is an excellent actor.

Despite great performances from a solid cast, 2012's remake of The Woman In Black is basically a one-man show, featuring Radcliffe delivering a convincing turn as troubled young lawyer Arthur Kipps.  Written by Jane Goldman and directed by James Watkins, The Woman In Black is not only a film from Hammer Film Productions, it marks a return to the gothic, bump-in-the-night spooky visual tale of which Hammer was once the relentless factory.  A good, popcorn-at-midnight flick with plenty of mood settings and jump-scares, The Woman In Black isn't the greatest haunted house film ever made, but it's definitely not a bad entry into a genre I would like to see make a bigger comeback.

Based on Susan Hill's 1983 novel, the 2012 film version features Radcliffe as the aforementioned sad sack Kipps, who is a widower with a young son (played by Misha Handley, Radcliffe's real-life godson) and a decidedly less-than-stellar assignment:  rifle through the paperwork to sell an old mansion.  The mansion happens to have the appealing name of Eel Marsh House, and is the center of a local legend in the small town where it sits.  The superstitious townsfolk aren't exactly welcoming to Kipps and maybe they have a point.  The children of the town have been dying with frightening frequency in the most gruesome of ways.  They believe the ghost residing in Eel Marsh House is at fault, and Kipps is only smacking the hornets' nest.

Kipps struggles with the mystery as well as the harrowing experiences he has at Eel Marsh House, including visions of a dark apparition that also seems to appear just before children commit suicide.  He delves into the story with the help of the only person in town who treats him with any kindness, a local businessman named Sam (Cirián Hinds), who also lost a child to the ghostly woman.  Kipps finds out what motivates the ghost and it becomes a race against time and the elements to try and satisfy the dead.

See, no spoilers and no Harry Potter references.

The Woman In Black is a solid thriller with beautiful atmosphere for gothic horror fans and sudden frights for fans of "boo!" sort of moments.  The photography and direction make everything look great, and the acting - especially from Radcliffe and Hinds - is excellent.  The ending might leave you saying, "Oh, really?" but that's really just a minor thing compared to the quality leading up to that.  It's definitely a good one to turn on late at night when you're really feeling like an atmospheric, tense little viewing.  Good, midnight fun.

And that makes it a successful film.

Oh, yeah, one more thing:  the toys.  Brrr...you'll see what I mean.

Here's the trailer:

The Horseman (2008) How Far Would You Go?

Revenge thrillers are a slippery slope.  If you're making one where the protagonist is simply killing others without much backstory or sympathetic motive, then what separates that character from the serial killers and deranged crazies that serve as antagonists?  Ah, and there's the rub.  The very question of a good revenge thriller is just that:  what separates our hero from the villains he or she is hunting?  In order to remain human or on the "side of the angels," the hero has to have something rooting him or her in reality, something that reminds them that they may be on the path to being monsters, but will never become one.  We hope.

One revenge thriller that really set the bar high was Korea's entry, I Saw The Devil, which I reviewed a couple months ago.  That was an amazing character study on both sides of the fence.  But ranking really high was another great character study in vengeance and violence from Australia, The Horseman.  A relatively quiet film - except for moments of intense screaming, crying, and yelling - it showcases the considerable acting talents of Peter Marshall as the distraught, relentless father-in-mourning as well as the fantastic directing of writer-producer-director Steven Kastrissios.

Christian (Marshall) is a father mourning the loss of his daughter from an overdose of heroin, among several other drugs.  When he discovers that she participated in a low-rent porno film and was left for dead by someone involved, he takes it upon himself to hunt down each and every person connected with the film.  Collecting his tools and hopping in his van, he takes out his vengeance on a variety of people, some who are sorry and some who are not.  Along the way, he meets a young, pregnant runaway, Alice (Caroline Marohasy) who definitely reminds him of his daughter.  Up until then, the guy was a juggernaut with a tool box, but Alice brings him back down to earth, for a short time anyway.  Christian soon discovers that not all of the men are what they seemed, or what he believed.  He also uncovers a web much darker than he ever could have imagined.  Where it looked like Christian was the force of nature, and the scummy filmmakers were the weak villains, tables turn horribly on the father and he has to reach deep down to not only exact vengeance, but survive.

The film is impeccably-paced, with stretches of introspective calm peppered with growing swells of brutal violence.  Marshall is utterly tremendous as Christian, a man we can identify with as he tracks down those responsible for his daughter's death, despite the fact that she sought them out to make a quick buck.  He chooses to see past that, to the little girl he once protected and cared for in his own home.  His role as protector shifts to Alice, played wonderfully by Marohasy.  Marshall brings moments of intense compassion, violence, determination, and even confusion to the role of Christian.  He's tough and wants revenge, yet desires to just be a father again.  When he's weeping at the end of the film, you see what he's feeling, you see why he's crying.  All those pent-up emotions finally break the gate, and it's stunning.

Take a chance on The Horseman if you want a revenge thriller that's a cut - or crowbar smash - above others.  Fine acting, great directing, a haunting score, and the question of just how far would you go?

Until next time, enjoy the official website and this trailer:

I Saw The Devil (2010) Blurring The Lines

When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

That's the quote that kept running through my mind as I watched the profoundly disturbing, deeply stirring Korean film I Saw The Devil.  Those words sum up exactly what the film was about.  What makes a monster?  And do you have to become a monster to do battle with one?

Directed by Jee-woon Kim (A Tale of Two Sisters) and starring two brilliant actors in Choi Min-sik (Oldboy) and Lee Byung-hun (The Good, The Bad, The Weird), I Saw The Devil is the story of one man's angry descent into that abyss in order to do battle with a man already entrenched there.  These are two men who excel at what they do:  one, a good man and a secret agent of the country, and the other man, an experienced serial killer with practically no fear.  It takes an innocent woman's death to slam their worlds together and begin the downward spiral.

A young woman awaits help in her car one snowy night when she's approached by Kyung-chul (Choi Min-sik), who offers to help her.  She refuses politely, but is brutally attacked anyway.  Kyung-chul takes her to his lair, where he systematically murders and dismembers her.  Her fiance, Soo-hyun (Lee Byung-hun), is devastated by her death and swears to hunt down the man responsible.  After viciously cutting a path through suspects, he finds clues that point directly at Kyung-chul, and the game, as they say, is afoot.  Soo-hyun thwarts Kyung-chul's attempt to make a young schoolgirl his next victim, beating the living hell out of him, then forcing him to swallow a transmitter.  In a compelling and strange journey, Kyung-chul sets out to get his wounds treated.  By "compelling and strange," I mean his odd and eventually violent taxi ride with two other insane gentlemen.  He threatens the doctor who treats him and begins assaulting the nurse, only to be interrupted by Soo-hyun, who leaves him with a severed Achilles tendon.

Kyung-chul holes up with a buddy from  his circle of psychotic murderers, a cannibal who lives with his complicit girlfriend.  Soo-hyun follows his prey to the house, where he engages in another insane battle with not one but all three nutjobs in the house.  All three are taken to the hospital, and it is here that Soo-hyun's overconfidence and rage - coupled with his underestimation of Kyung-chul's own craftiness - cause his own downward spiral.  The people around Soo-hyun, his friends and colleagues and his fiancee's grieving family, all warn him against pursuing Kyung-chul for reasons other than apprehending him.  And it is here in the hospital that Kyung-chul is given an opportunity to turn the tables on his vengeance-seeking hunter.  The battles of wills begins in earnest here, and never lets up until the undeniably sad conclusion...a battle and conclusion you really need to see for yourself, trust me on this.

The chemistry between Choi Min-sik and Lee Byung-hun is electric and dynamic.  Whether they're on-screen together or in separate scenes, their performances are like dances or a battle.  They're matched up perfectly as villain and hero, and as a duo whose methods become eerily similar.  Soo-hyun has looked in that abyss - a dark canyon in Kyung-chul - and it stared hard and defiant back at him.

Kyung-chul is no ordinary villain.  He is relentless, remorseless, cunning, and a force of nature.  And guess what?  Those exact traits can be applied to Soo-hyun, who is no ordinary hero.  Their motives are different, but both have become monsters.  Director Jee-woon Kim leads the two in a duel for the ages, down and dirty, gritty and bloody, framed with beautiful photography.  All the pieces just fit.

Two moments stick out in my mind as I write this.  Two character moments that simply summed up each man.  One, while Kyung-chul sits with his cannibalistic friend for dinner (during which he refuses to eat the "house special"), the friend cracks a joke about Kyung-chul, who quietly stares down his host.  The friend goes from "oh, come on, I'm just kidding" to fearful for his life to tearful relief.  Kyung-chul's unspoken reputation, which we already know is pretty sick, snowballs to frightening size.

The other moment belongs to Soo-hyun and it comes during the final shots of the film.  When the realization hits him regarding what he has done, how far he has gone to get it done, and the prices he has paid to get it done...it's a punch in the gut to both him and the audience.  His cold, expert expression finally melts and he weeps uncontrollably in the middle of a street.  He knows what he's done and it's too late to go back.  Far too late.

As you may guess, I highly recommend I Saw The Devil.  If you have a weak stomach or have a low tolerance for cinematic brutality, you may want to steer clear.  But the violence isn't gratuitous.  It is an important key to the story.  It is about that abyss and its question to you:  "what would you do?"  It is disturbing and gritty and unflinching.  It is also compelling and exciting and a story very well-told.

Just be sure to remember Nietzsche's words...