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Solicitor Arthur Kidd (Adrian Rawlins) is called to a now abandoned
estate in the marshlands somewhere near a little coastal village, to sort
out the affairs of its now deceased owner - and soon realizes he is not
alone, as a woman in black (Pauline Moran) shows up tie and again, and she
seems to be pure evil. Before long he comes to the conclusion that she is
actually a ghost. Furthermore he hears weird sounds that seem to repeat
the same scene over and over again: A coach losing its way and sinking
into the marsh, and a kid dying in the process. Eventualy, Kidd finds
out a few things about the owner of the estate: Turns out she has once
taken away her sister's kid and claimed it was her own because it was a
bastard and that would have tarnished the family name, but the sister took
the kid back but the coach got lost in the marsh and the kid has died,
with the sister committing suicide not long afterwards. It now seems
that the sister is haunting Kidd, though no explanation is given as of
why. Eventually though, he burns down the estate completely ... but
somehow his client's paperwork makes it into his office in London. He
burns all the papers right then and there ... and in the process is seen
unfit for work and suspended from his job. Taking a little trip in a
rowboat, Kidd sees the woman in black once more, after which he and his
family are killed by a falling treebranch. First of all, I have
to admit that I have never read Susan Hill's source novel this film is
based on - but this film that has resulted from it is utter crap! Why? Because
it totally lacks narrative stringency. There is no reason given in the
film why the woman in black haunts Arthur Kidd, nor what she wants from
him. There is a mystery built up around the woman in black, but its
resolution is not only utterly disappointing, it also totally fails to
advance the film. And why does Kidd think burning the estate and the
deceased woman's papers would help any against the ghost? Why is the ghost
so hell-bent on killing him that it follows him half across the country?
All questions that remain unanswered, and while it's true that a good
ghost story doesn't have to make perfect sense, even needs to keep a
residue of mystery until the very end, this movie is really overdoing it. Rather
a disappointment, actually.
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