Work at the grounds has reached an uncomfortable level of stress. I insist that I love our cemetery and all of the visitors that we have visit us during the day and night. However, after an increase in services the Undertaker thought it would be nice to take me yet again to the cinema. With the amount of work I have wasting time away at the theater was not something I thought I could afford, but when he mentioned to me that The Woman in Black would be there I grew thrilled!
Now, most cemeteries have a woman in white. Many haunted roads and haunted houses have a woman as white as well, but a woman in black, well that is a rarity. However, when we arrived at the movie show the marquee read “The Woman in Black.” When I asked the Undertaker to explain he said simply that I would be very pleased with this film because “It will feel like home.”
Firstly, The Woman in Black was a novel written by Susan Hill. Read it. You must. Secondly, this film does what so many horror movies wished they could do – capture the true essence of horror. Set in the Victorian period, the movie’s heavy macabre atmosphere, lavish vintage details – actual Victorian era black and white photographs, porcelain dolls, family portraits, and an actual lived in estate that took nearly a week to be prepped for filming are all examples of the level of detail that went into this film. The preparation for the estate for example included overgrown vegetation, grimy windows, clutter, cobwebs and layers upon layers of dust fit for long dark corridors, creaking doors, and disembodied voices.
The Woman in Black is easily one of the best horror films I have seen in quite some time. Its terror rests in the simplicity of vengeance and a tortured spirit that seeks ruin. Isn’t all horror simply that? The fight between light and dark?
Soon we will talk more about Victorian funerary and death customs. Now my friends do see this film.
-Gravedigger
