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Saturday, February 18, 2012

Sheep Movie Review: The Woman in Black


If I can describe this film in one word: Yaaaaaawwwn! Maybe I was expecting too much, but I was disappointed with The Woman in Black (WIB). It starts out slow as they try to impress upon us how miserable Arthur Kipps has been since his wife died during childbirth years ago. He is sent to a small creepy ocean side town to go through the papers of a woman who recently died. When he gets there…eventually…everyone is fearful of him and hiding their children. Arthur doesn’t seem particularly concerned with this odd behavior and no explanation is given during the movie. I spent most the movie trying to figure out what was going on and why? I wasn’t even sure who the WIB was till I got home and Googled it!

The story just didn’t make sense and neither did Arthur Kipps actions.  While working in the haunted house he keeps hearing strange noises so he looks around the house (sometimes needing a candle, sometimes not, but that is a whole other subject) then he goes outside to look around, then back in to sit and work. Then…OMG, there is another noise and guess what he does? Yup, looks around the house, goes outside to look, lather, rinse, repeat. This happens quite a bit. Everyone once in a while we get what I call the “OMG CAT!” moment, but in this case it is a big black bird. There are some genuinely creepy moments when the dead children start popping up.
Long story short, one sister took the baby of a crazy sister to raise as her own, but there was an accident and the then five year old boy died. The crazy sister (who was living with them, why? I don’t know) swore vengeance and hung herself. Now she goes around killing children in the village as a ghost. Because that will really show her sister....killing completely unrelated children. Why didn’t she kill her sister? How long has she been doing this? I don’t know, but there are still children in the village (why don’t the parents leave? I don’t know) so she must not be doing it very often. For some reason she starts killing again when Arthur comes to town. Why? I don’t know.  The WIB has targeted Arthur’s young son, who is on his way to stay with his dad in this town. Why? I don’t know. Arthur comes up with a plan to bring the dead boy and the WIB back together and lay them both to rest. This is possible because someone in the town has a car which can pull the carriage containing the dead boy out of the mud. This wasn’t possible at the time of the accident because…I don’t know. Someone managed to build a giant mansion of stone on this island and plant a giant cross in the mud where the carriage sunk, but they couldn’t figure out how to raise the carriage out of the mud. Because the horses that carried the stone weren't strong enough to do that I guess. Okay. And during all this Arthur’s dead wife shows up. Why? I don’t know. I do know the ending... and it was dorky.

What did I like about this film? Harry Potter has grown into a handsome young man. Other than that, I can’t think of a reason to see it. But that is just my opinion. Maybe I am just shallow and only like movies with things that catch on fire and go BOOM! Which, I do by the way.

2 "Say Wha?" Sheep
SharonS. (edited by Kalpar)


  1. Loved your review! Why? I don’t know. LOL. I'm kidding. I do know why, because it was very entertaining and funny.

    My husband and I watched this movie last weekend. I wasn't disappointed with the slow start though. It made for a good base for all the suddenly creepy in your face moments, like the black bird, children appearing suddenly in the view of key holes and seeing images of the woman in the windows.

    All creepy stuff, but like you mentioned, really slow paced and the movie had so many plot holes. The one woman who went into trances and drew pictures, why? I don't know!

    Love it. Thanks for the fun review. :)

    1. Thanks. I have gotten tired of all those cliche popping up moments, but the hand that shows up on the bathroom door was freaky oh, the plot holes! That was why I looked the story up online so I could piece together what was going on. And I thought about mentioning the picture lady, but like you said, what was the point of her? I will be seeing Ghost Rider. That is more my kind of movie.

  2. Luckily I don't get to the theater to see anything but G rated stuff. This sounds entirely unfascinating! Defascinating? Ilfascinating? I don't know!

  3. That's too bad. The Goodreads preview that was in my face every time I logged on made this movie look really interesting and creepy. I'll wait and check it out on DVD.

    1. Some people might like this type of movie, great cinematography, but it just didn't entertain my short attention span brain :)

  4. Oopsie! Sorry about the editing comments I left in. Now e erroneous knows Kalpar's is the reason I sound like I know what I am talking about. I have deleted his comments now

  5. why? i don't know. why? i don't know. lol I DON'T KNOW!!!!!!! *banging head against the wall*

  6. This seems like the best review about the film I have read.

    I was really impressed when I saw the road, empty marshlands and suddenly a big house on an island where trees grew. How did they build it indeed.

    Also notice, how poor dog dissapeared somewhere. I thought the guy with the car loved his dog, they were together even on the train, but later he just gave him up. :s

    And why do evil killers get to be evil and powerful even in death. Women in black killed those poor children and then just somehow kept them around. (And children seemed so well behaved and listening to whatever she orders, huh, my sisters never listen to me. "She made us do it!" Bla, bla, bla. Like children don't know word "no".) And if they are innocent and children they should just go to a better place, not be kept around. What can the women do to them... Maybe kill, oh wait, they're dead.

    Movie could be made a bit funny at the end if, when Arthur and his son were killed, they would join the dead children and Arthur the ghost would argue with the women all the time.

    *Trying to kill another child*
    Woman: "Jump out the window! Ahhhh!"
    Arthur: "No, don't jump! Stop giving them bad ideas!"
    Woman's son: "You're not my mommy!"
    Arthur: "Nobody is talking to you."
    *The victim child is confused and walks away, ghosts argue*

    Or a battle between woman in black and the boy's ghost mother in white. :P

    1. OMG, I forgot about the dog! you are right. I was so busy trying to figure out what was going on. The ending was too hokey for me. It would have been cool if the wife's ghost would have kicked the Woman in Blacks ass thanks for commenting :)