Herbert Wise's Woman in Black is a blueprint on how a film should be made in order to scare the intelligent audience. Adapted from a book by the same name this Television film has one of the creepiest ghosts ever put on film- and she is there standing in broad daylight! The atmosphere is haunting and the pristine 16mm film stock lends itself well to the tone of the film. A remake starring Daniel Radcliffe was made in 2012 but it does away with everything that this film stands for-a minimalist approach. You should definitely see this movie- it maybe hard to procure but the entire film exists on you-tube.

Herbert Wise's Woman in Black is a blueprint on how a film should be made in order to scare the intelligent audience. Adapted from a book by the same name this Television film has one of the creepiest ghosts ever put on film- and she is there standing in broad daylight! The atmosphere is haunting and the pristine 16mm film stock lends itself well to the tone of the film. A remake starring Daniel Radcliffe was made in 2012 but it does away with everything that this film stands for-a minimalist approach. You should definitely see this movie- it maybe hard to procure but the entire film exists on you-tube.

This is the best ghost film of all time.In this film, you won't find blood and guts, cheap scares, or clichéd setups where you know exactly what is coming. You will just find a claustrophobic and disturbing presence - a happiness sapping looming malevolence that will scare your socks off.That horrifying woman, who appears sporadically throughout this low budget masterpiece, is a more terrifying spectre than anything I have seen in any other horror film. She doesn't even need to do anything - just her look... her stare is enough to send a chill right through my body. And that's the beauty of this film. It gets the atmosphere bang on.Since seeing this film for the first time many years ago, it has been the absolute benchmark of quality for every horror film I have since watched. Nothing has yet come close.The only other film that gets anywhere near is the original Wicker Man (another fantastic film).If your idea of a scary film is the slasher horror style so beloved by Hollywood, then this might not be your cup of tea. It is a slow paced film that builds inexorably towards its double-whammy horrifying ending and the sophisticated film viewer will savour every minute.If you haven't seen this film already, it is a piece of work that you simply must experience. The Harry Potter version doesn't even come close.

I had this TV film in my video collection until DVD came along. I now find it's only available on NTSC DVD. That makes it a bit of a faff on my current set-up as I have to go into the menus on my player to manually set it to NTSC. The picture quality isn't as good as PAL due to the slower fresh rate of NTSC.So I was wondering, with the new big-screen version due out soon, whether the current owners of the film might release this version on Region 2 DVD in PAL for it's original viewing audience who have such fond memories of watching it that Christmas? About the film - very atmospheric and creepy. I'll always remember Spider the Jack Russell, the creepy wax cylinder recordings, the unexplained happenings in the house, Arthur Kidd's convalescence and THAT scene... and the unforgiving Woman in Black.