The Woman in Black is a gothic horror/ghost film about a man trying to solve the mystery of the woman in black and why people keep dying and doing dangerous things that no ordinary person would do. It is set in the past rather than modern day, which is evident through the clothing and language used.
The opening scene of the film shows three young girls in a bedroom, having a tea party with a China tea set and China dolls and they all seem to be enjoying themselves. You can tell immediately that it is not set in a present day time drama as they are all dressed in an old fashioned way and playing with toys that children these days wouldn't be seen playing with. The film seems to be set in England, based on the clothes, the toys, and later on the accents that can be heard from the characters.
The lighting is quite dream like and soft, making the young girls seem very innocent and angelic, although the lighting has a slightly cool tone to it, suggesting that something bad may happen. The camera angles are fairly basic, however, sometimes they are slightly offset as not to show the whole picture to create a sense of mystery and so that the audience isn't in the know about everything, making them curious to find out. The overall effect of the camera angles and the lighting is quite a spooky, spine chilling one as it looks too bleak and innocent and we can't see everything at once and so get the feeling that something is watching.
There are a lot of cuts from one shot to the next rather than continuity as this means that the audience is only really seeing snippets at a time, creating an elect of mystery to the film as they'll want to know what exactly is going on. However, because it is not yet out right horror, a lot of the cuts are quite soft and change from one shot to the next without too much jolting to continue with the sinister, dream-like effect of the film.
Everything in this film seems to be slowed down ever so slightly, not quite enough to be your typical cheesy slow-mo, but enough to make you feel paranoid whilst watching it as you can see what's coming and all you can do is sit there and watch whilst it happens extra slowly to make it more horrific and hard hitting. For example, when the tea cup drops, we can see that it is going to hit the floor, however it seems to take forever to happen and so more suspense is held. This is further intensified when the girls walk towards the windows and proceed to open them, as we can all see what's coming next yet can do nothing to prevent it and so are forced to watch as the three young, innocent girls all jump out of the window to their death. This particularly adds to the creepy, sinister feel as it is not at all gory or dark or typical of a horror movie, but instead more light an innocent, making it feel more like it could happen in real life, thus scaring the audience.
The set and the costume etc is mainly realism, as they are all wearing clothes that would have been normal of the time period and it is set in England in realistic houses, however, sometimes the lighting can be almost as if it is in a dream-like state, especially at the start and at other times when characters have been possesed.
It follows a fairly simple narrative structure as there aren't really any flashbacks or any chopping and changing and mainly just follow the mans day to day activities over a fairly short time span, however not too short. This is to make it seem realistic to the audience, as horror movies are scarier if it is actually more believable that the thing it's about could really happen.
There is a lot of dialogue in The Woman In Black as the main character searches for clues about the woman in black bay asking various people and going around the village trying to find out as much as he can. However, there are some bits with less talking as the character is 'alone' in the house, and so may talk to himself or his dog or whoever else he feels is there with him. The acting style is very naturalistic and there are no big exaggerate characters, only seemingly normal ones to add to the horror factor.
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