THE WOMAN IN BLACK (1989) Region B Blu-ray
Director: Herbert Wise
Network

Another British ghost story for the Christmas season is back to scar a new generation of viewers with Network's Blu-ray release of THE WOMAN IN BLACK.

London junior law partner Arthur Kidd (Adrian Rawlins, BREAKING THE WAVES) is tasked with traveling to the coastal village of Crythin Gifford by his superior (David Ryall, THE RUSSIA HOUSE) – a little too suspicious in his reticence to take on the job himself – to settle the estate of recently deceased Alice Drablow consisting of Eel Marsh House, a lonely pile only accessible through a causeway that becomes uncrossable when the tide comes in and the impenetrable sea mist of which can mean death if one does not watch their step. Far more disturbing to Kidd than the usual hints of dread dropped by the locals when he mentions the Drablow house – among them seemingly sensible landowner Sam Toovey (Bernard Hepton, GET CARTER) – is the presence of a silent woman in black (Pauline Moran, TV's POIROT) as the only other mourner at Drablow's funeral; a woman whose presence local attorney Pepperell (John Cater, THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES) refuses to acknowledge and whose appearance precedes a near brush with death for a gypsy child that Arthur rescues from being crushed in a road accident. Among Alice Drablow's rubbish are a series of wax cylinders from which he learns that this woman was haunting the widow nightly, and Arthur starts to question the link between the haunting sounds of an accident on the misty causeway that took the life of a child and the startling prevalence in the local churchyard of the graves of young children.

Based on the novel by Susan Hill, previously adapted as a long-running stage play and subsequently by the new iteration of Hammer as a star vehicle for HARRY POTTER's Daniel Radcliffe, the television version of THE WOMAN IN BLACK which premiered the day before Christmas in 1989 is better-remembered as a Nigel Kneale (QUATERMASS) adaptation; and, indeed, it shares some thematic threads with some of Kneale's genre work, particularly THE STONE TAPE in which the protagonist is tormented by another type of recording of a long lost soul's horrible last moments of life (more so here where the cries and screams really batter the psyche). While Moran cuts a chilling figure, and the seemingly playful child's voice has a sinister undertone, the film is at its strongest focusing on Rawlins' increasing terror; so much so that the seeming comfort of electric light in Eel Marsh House has him running out into the unknown terrors of the night in desperation to get the hand-cranked generator running again. The ending of the novel is tragic but Kneale's particular twist is downright devastating. This is a ghost story in which such conventions as a buried secret coming out in the open and the conflagration of the haunted house are not enough to quell the undying anger of a ghost. The jump scare-heavy Hammer adaptation cannot even remotely compare, and the liberties it takes make it seem far more conventional, and its take on the ending is particularly poorly-conceived. The only reason it would not be considered the worst adaptation of the novel is because Hammer followed it with a far worse sequel. A young Andy Nyman (DEATH AT A FUNERAL), who penned and co-directed the more recent GHOST STORIES, and Steven Mackintosh (THE DAISY CHAIN) appear in early roles as Kidd's law clerks, and the cast also includes Clare Holman (AFRAID OF THE DARK) as Kidd's wife, Caroline John (DOCTOR WHO's Liz Shaw) as his mother-in-law, and Fiona Walker (FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD) as Toovey's wife.

After is Christmas week premiere and subsequent UK VHS release, THE WOMAN IN BLACK became difficult to see – there were rumors that author Hill suppressed it since she was not satisfied with Kneale's take – but the film became available stateside later in the decade first on VHS and then in a now out-of-print and expensive DVD from BFS Video. It goes without saying that Network blow the previous video master out of the water with their new HD restoration, presented here in a 1080i50 MPEG-4 AVC 1.37:1 television aspect ratio version running 102:18 with the original ad-break, and a 1.78:1-framed widescreen version running 101:43 without the break. The television framing is preferable but the widescreen version is not bad at all, and they both reveal more in the location work and well-appointed soundstage interiors than before on video, including some subtler lighting contrasts that looked flatter on video. The LPCM 2.0 mono track on both transfers shows that Dolby Stereo directionality is not needed to frighten the protagonist and the viewer with offscreen noises and voices – indeed, the everyday sound of a passing pony and trap becomes unnerving as the film goes on – and optional English HoH subtitles are also provided.

The fullscreen version alone is accompanied by an audio commentary by critic and author Kim Newman, filmmaker Mark Gatiss (SHERLOCK), and actor Nyman in which they do not necessarily disparage the Hammer remake and they are more bewildered by Hill's response to the TV version than by Kneale's "crotchety" attitude towards the source material. They each recall their respective youthful traumas seeing the film – Nyman saw it in a screening sitting beside Moran – and Nyman recalls the thrill of one of his earliest acting jobs, including getting to work with character actors he had grown to love watching television. The three also note in discussing both Kneale and director Herbert Wise (I, CLAUDIUS) that the television film represents something of the lost art of the such television events in a time of new shows popping up every week, citing particularly Wise's pacing and visual as well as the economy of Kneale's scripting. The disc also includes an image gallery (1:35). Not provided for review is a liner notes booklet by Andrew Pixley, and there appear to be now BD-ROM extras unlike some other Network restorations. (Eric Cotenas)

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