The Woman in Black (1989 film)

This article is about the 1989 film. For the 2012 film, see The Woman in Black (2012 film).

The Woman in Black
Directed by	Herbert Wise
Screenplay by	Nigel Kneale
Based on	The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
Produced by	Chris Burt
Starring	Adrian Rawlins Bernard Hepton David Daker Pauline Moran
Cinematography	Michael Davis
Edited by	Laurence Méry-Clark
Music by	Rachel Portman
Production company	Granada Television
Distributed by	Central Independent Television
Release date	24 December 1989 (1989-12-24)
Running time	103 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

The Woman in Black is a 1989 British television horror film directed by Herbert Wise and starring Adrian Rawlins, Bernard Hepton, David Daker and Pauline Moran. The teleplay is adapted from the 1983 novel of the same name by Susan Hill. It focuses on a young solicitor who is sent to a coastal English village to settle the estate of a reclusive widow, and finds the town haunted.

The programme was produced by Central Independent Television for the ITV Network, and premiered on Christmas Eve 1989 and was an unexpected success, though author Susan Hill reportedly disagreed with some of the slight changes Kneale made in the adaptation. Another film version was released in 2012, starring Daniel Radcliffe in the lead role.

Plot

In 1925, London solicitor Arthur Kidd travels to the coastal market town of Crythin Gifford in North East England to attend the funeral and settle the estate of Alice Drablow, a reclusive widow. Upon his arrival Kidd meets Sam Toovey, a local land owner who is unsettled to hear of the Drablows. Kidd finds the townspeople reluctant to talk about Drablow's home, Eel Marsh House.

Kidd attends the funeral with local solicitor Pepperell. He notices a woman in black in the church, then again amid the gravestones. He mentions the woman to Pepperell. Elsewhere, a truck drops lumber and cripples a Romani child.

Kidd goes to Eel Marsh House over a tidal causeway. Driver Keckwick knows the timing of the tides.

Kidd sees the woman again in the graveyard. Terrified, he flees into the house. While looking around the study, he finds two death certificates as well as pictures of a young woman who resembles the Woman in Black. After hearing some disturbing recordings made by Mrs. Drablow on wax cylinders, he heads back to town.

In town, Toovey tells him not to go back to the house, but Kidd insists on returning. Toovey loans Kidd his dog Spider.

Upon his return, Kidd hears a bouncing ball from upstairs. Spider starts whining and leads Kidd to a door that cannot be opened. Kidd gets an axe to break the door, returning to find the door has opened by itself.

Kidd sees an immaculately clean child's nursery. Kidd notices that a lead soldier is somehow in his hand. He realizes that the generator is running down. Unwilling to be left in the dark, Kidd rushes outside toward the generator.

Outside, Spider answers a high whistle and runs away. The noise of the horse and child start again. Kidd, frightened almost into madness, rushes locks himself into the house. He records his fears onto the wax cylinders.

From various sources inside the study, Kidd learns that Mrs. Drablow's sister, Jennet Goss, gave birth to a child but was unable to care for it. The Drablows adopted the boy, insisting he should never know that Jennet was his mother. One day, Jennet kidnapped her son and tried to escape via the causeway. The pony and trap became lost and sank into the marshes, killing all aboard.

Toovey arrives at Eel Marsh House, brought by Spider, and listens to Kidd's theories. Toovey says that seeing the Woman in Black presages the death of a child. Kidd packs to leave. However, amongst the papers, he finds the lead soldier. He points this out to Toovey, and they go up to the nursery. However, when they reach it, the room is a mess, with all the toys smashed and the furniture in shambles. Kidd collapses.

Kidd awakens in the town inn to the sound of the child's laughter and finds the soldier yet again in his hand. After asking out loud what the child wants of him, the child replies that the soldier "is for you". The Woman in Black appears, hovering over his bed, and shrieks into his face, terrifying him into unconsciousness.

Kidd returns to London and his family. His boss instructs him to look through the box of papers from Crythin Gifford. At that moment, his two assistants come in and say that there was a customer for him, a woman dressed completely in black. Delirious with terror, Kidd searches madly through the box for the toy soldier. When he does not find it, he burns all the papers and the box, and half his office as well. His boss fires him and the Kidd family leaves London.

Later, Arthur and his family are boating on a peaceful lake when Arthur sees the Woman in Black. Petrified, he does nothing. A tree falls on their boat, drowning and killing them all.

Cast

• Adrian Rawlins as Arthur Kidd
• Bernard Hepton as Sam Toovey
• David Daker as Josiah Freston
• Pauline Moran as Woman in Black
• David Ryall as Sweetman
• Clare Holman as Stella Kidd
• John Cater as Arnold Pepperell
• John Franklyn-Robbins as Reverend Greet
• Fiona Walker as Mrs Toovey
• William Simons as Keckwick
• Robin Weaver as Bessie
• Caroline John as Stella's mother
• Joseph Upton as Eddie Kidd
• Steven Mackintosh as Rolfe
• Andy Nyman as Jackie
• Robert Hamilton as Mr Girdler
• Trevor Cooper as Farmer
• Peter Guinness as Stallholder

Production

The programme was filmed at Stanlake Park in Berkshire, using the causeway to Osea Island, near Goldhanger in Essex, and the local salt marshes, whilst scenes to represent Crythin Gifford were filmed at the National Trust village of Lacock, near Chippenham, Wiltshire. The external funeral scene was filmed in Sarratt, Hertfordshire.

Release

Broadcast history

The film was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on ITV on Christmas Eve 1989, with the only repeat airing taking place on Channel 4 at Christmas 1994. Overall the TV adaptation stayed reasonably faithful to the original novel, although some of the changes angered the author Susan Hill (for example, the sex of the dog 'Spider' was changed from female to male). Arthur's name has also been changed from Kipps to Kidd.

Home media

The TV version was released in the United Kingdom on VHS exclusive to WHSmith stores, but only for a fairly short time. There was also a Region 1 DVD release by BFS Entertainment, released on 8 August 2000, but it is now out of print and, according to the messageboard at the site of Susan Hill, the television rights are now owned by someone else. The rights have been purchased twice and currently reside with a U.S. studio.

In the United Kingdom, Network Distribution was to have released a Blu-ray version in May 2020 but this has been delayed until August due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The film for this release has been restored and remastered in high-definition from the original film elements and will have extras including full screen and widescreen presentations and audio commentary by authors Mark Gatiss, Andy Nyman and Kim Newman.

Critical reception

In his book Creature Features: The Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Movie Guide (2000), John Stanley wrote that the film was a "chilly British ghost story in the best literary traditions of H. R. Wakefield and M. R. James... [it] has moments that will freeze your bone marrow." Lisa Kerrigan of the British Film Institute noted that the film "makes for a spine-tingling viewing experience." In 2011, Complex named the film the fourteenth-best television film of all time, noting that it "disturbs right down to its unbelievably downbeat ending."

Awards and nominations

The Woman in Black was nominated for four BAFTA awards, including Best Design, Best Film Sound, Best Make Up and Best Original Television Music.

See also

• List of ghost films

Works cited

• Hand, Richard J. (2015). Listen in Terror: British Horror Radio from the Advent of Broadcasting to the Digital Age. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-1-526-10256-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Stanley, John (2000). Creature Features: The Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Movie Guide. New York: Berkley Boulevard Books. ISBN 978-0-425-17517-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• The Woman in Black at IMDb
• The Woman in Black at AllMovie