HAMMER PRESENTS THE WOMAN IN BLACK

year: 2012 rating: *1/2

In the spirit of the HAMMER FILMS of yesteryear, here's an old-school horror with a familiar premise: a handsome young lawyer's sent to a dark town that harbors secrets and winds up being stalked by an ominous presence.

Using the implied method of building suspense, and never clearly showing the antagonist, does have its merits: except when there's more work than payoff. Daniel Radcliffe embodies the right amount of clean-slate expressions for the gloomy pawn, narrowly searching through the main setting – a haunted house where the ghost of a shrouded woman resides.

Save for loud music erupting whenever the titular wraith peaks her head around a corner, or sulks through the mist-laden exterior, Radcliffe's determined curiosity... the basis of any horror tale... seems in vain. And by the time he attempts resolution for the menacing ghost, learning the motivations of her vengeful purpose to remain an active trickster in the doomed town, the audience is hoping for all those cheap, fun, and most important, scary thrills that are never quite realized.