The Woman In Black

A Widowed father with a young son is dispatched by his law firm to the NorthEast for a last chance to keep his job by clearing up the affairs of a dead woman with a mansion full of old documents. The locals immediately try to get rid of him but naturally, in true Hammer Horror style, won't talk to him so he doesn't know why. So he goes to the house in the middle of a tidal estuary and bad things start to happen.

The film is a masterclass in how to create suspense and shock without resorting to gore, violence and constant loud bangs. Glimpses of things in mirrors, early flash backs of dreadful events, and an oblivious solicitor leave us to guess at the real nature of the haunting. Then things start to happen. Who knew how creepy a rocking chair could be? And relief doesn't come from leaving the house as the events spill into the village. So when our dauntless man heads back to the house we gasp in union "why?"

Don't be put off by the 12a rating. There are 18 rated horrors much less scary than this. Do be advised though that 12a really does mean 12, unless you like 10 year olds having nightmares.

The Muppets

The Muppet Show is over. The Theatre is being sold and an evil oil baron will knock it down to drill for oil. Better get the Muppets back for a benefits gig. Cue madcap shenanigans from the madcap fluffy puppets, daft songs from an on form Brett McKenzie (flight of the conchords) and an hour and a half of solid, cheerful film that will make you smile and occasionally laugh. 

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari

Dr Caligari keeps a Somnambulist (sleepwalker to those not in the freakshow profession) in a box. He wheels him out to crowds who can ask him questions whereupon he wakes up and predicts death. Death shortly follows. Coincidence?

Made in 1920 and as such, a silent film, the mugging that constituted acting in films then significantly detracted from the atmosphere the story might otherwise have generated by constantly making me chuckle. The exagerated acting of The Artist is left looking completely natural in the face of this.

It is only the acting that really stands out in that way though. The mehanics of the film surprised me a great deal. Told in flashback using decoys and twists this sets up what is still the quintessential horror template today.

What little tension did rise came from the score, never more obviously important. This highlighted how accustomed we have become to particular musical cues, being a modern composition to play along with the classic film. The fact it was played live was a terrific bonus adding that indescribable something that usually comes with any live show.

Brilliantly enjoyable and strange.

The Descendents

George Clooney is a wealthy lawyer with a wife, 2 daughters and a very large house in Hawaii. But his wife is in a coma after a boating accident and he has discovered he has no idea who his daughters are or how to relate to them.

So clearly he has to learn to be the father he isn't and the older daughter has to find control and maturity she's lacking so they can both protect the struggling youngest from her own confusion.

It sounds predictable and clichéd but avoids both. The bonding forms around further significant events that are believable. There are moments that demand re-evaluating characters. They tend to confront audience prejudice as well as the characters but the moments are subtle so demand pathos more than ridicule. With characters response taking more time than a freeze frame, it is also possible to believe in the gradual redemption of broken characters.

George Clooney turns in a fine performance as you might expect but Shailene Woodley is the standout turning in a touching, vulnerable performance of a young woman suddenly forced to grow up.

The film as a whole is a fairly downbeat affair exposing more than its fair share of human frailty but the redemption of these faults, while not upbeat, prevents the film falling into a mire of depression.