The Woman in Black: Press reviews

'Check behind the doors. Switch on all the lights. You won't be sleeping soundly for a while.'

'Seems there's life in the old boy yet. Harry Potter, RIP.'

'a standard haunted-house drama (all dark shadows and creaking doors), but the moody, beautifully composed production raises it above the norm'

'Like all of the best ghost stories, The Woman In Black is only enriched in the retelling'

'a reminder that the old scares, freshly executed, remain the sharpest'

'Be afraid – Harry Potter it ain't.'

' It all works reasonably well but the film lacks real punch.'

'There is also a feelgood ending, totally different from the book. It all works reasonably well but the film lacks real punch.'

'the former Potter has taken a shrewd baby-step in the right direction with this busy, bustling ghost story that at times appears less indebted to the Susan Hill bestseller than the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland.'

'Goldman's script and James Watkins's direction are efficient, and the movie is handsomely designed.

'old-fashioned, ornate, imposing, occasionally creaky – and possessed of more than a few enjoyably nasty surprises.old-fashioned, ornate, imposing, occasionally creaky – and possessed of more than a few enjoyably nasty surprises.'

'A heritage horror so classical it almost veers towards camp, this unashamedly old-fashioned ghost story benefits from Radcliffe's committed performance and Watkins' willingness to do anything for a scare.'

'If he is capable of another accent, or another facial expression, we'll have to wait for another film to witness it.'

'Some effective scares, but this is haunted house horror by numbers.'

'shockingly unscary'

'The story has worked in performance before. As a stage play it has run and run. As a movie it plods and plods.'

'Radcliffe has not been hiding a talent untapped by the Potter years'

'With Mr. Watkins's creeping camerawork it's Arthur who keeps the story steadily moving forward inch by inch, shiver by shiver.'