One of those rare occasions when the film is better than the book.
I read the slim novel by Susan Hill last week.
Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is summoned to attend the funeral of Mrs Alice Drablow, the sole inhabitant of Eel Marsh House. Unaware of the tragic secrets which lie there, wreathed in fog and mystery, it is not until he glimpses a wasted young woman, dressed all in black, at the funeral that a creeping sense of unease begins to take hold, a feeling deepened by the reluctance of the locals to talk of the woman in black - and her terrible purpose.
I felt that it had good gothic overtones, but it didn't really build up an atmosphere of fear or dread. The tale was told in the first person, but the narrator was quite restrained in his feelings towards the goings on at the house.
The Film
The film takes this slim story as its basis, but also the stage play, which I saw years ago and was pretty scary.
The film successfully creates a forboding atmosphere and some good chilling moments. Good use is made of the trick of the eye shot and in the background appearances. The omission of the graveyard burial is not missed and the addition of all the villagers stories, trying to protect their children, works well. There is a section in the book where the dog Spider is lured into the marshes by a whistle, starts to sink in the mud and has to be rescued by Arthur. This has been replaced by the car pulling the buried pony trap out of the mud and retrieving the body of Nathaniel. The addition of an exorcism brings extra shocks and gothic horror, but wisely puts on restraint rather than the excesses of Hammer films of old. The ending is telegraphed quite a long way in advance but in a perverse way manages to provide a happy ending to the film, which is lacking in the book.
The soundtrack by Marco Beltrami is menacing and ethereal, with whispers and bumps included. It worked quite well as background music to reading the book, but as there is less of the spectral on the page it often jarred.
If you enjoyed the book, try reading M R James for victorian ghost stories
If you enjoyed the film, try The Haunting (1963) or The Others (2001)
March: John Carter, Bel Ami, The Hunger Games
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