While it could be said that there is a bit of an over saturation of ghosts with films like Insidious and The Conjuring, the success of The Woman in Black shows a hunger for the classic British ghost stories. Blackwood is a film that is taking it’s lead from that mould but with it’s own modern twist.
After both personal and professional trouble, history professor Ben Marshall (Ed Stoppard) takes at a job at a smaller university and moves with his family (Sophia Myles and Isaac Andrews) into Blackwood House. Before too long, strange and unexplainable occurrences start to haunt Marshall, all hinting towards some horrible crime in the house’s past. As Marshall investigates and becomes more embroiled in the mystery, he must either solve this crime or lose his mind.
The first thing to say is that it wears it’s influences on its sleeve in the best possible way. Though it might fall into cattle-prod territory occasionally, the Gothic architecture and creeping shadows shows the nods to classic English ghost films like Whistle and I’ll Come to You and The Innocents. Unfortunately for me as a reviewer, the main unique, modernised parts are in the last 20 or so minutes so I can’t talk about them. What I can say is that it while it doesn’t do anything truly new, it is completely satisfying and worthwhile.
While Paul Kaye and Russell Tovey are definite highlights as the suspects, bringing a real eeriness and grand performances, there is a problem with Ed Stoppard’s performance, who I’ve liked very much previously in past roles like Henryk in The Pianist. He is still very good but it’s more a really great Coronation Street performance where you can see the strings of him acting, making it hard to remain engaged.
The thing I found most impressive is it doesn’t just go for the literal ghosts as some of the latest fare has but ghosts as scars; the more meta-physical ghosts of regret, war and mental illness that haunt us personally and as a society.
While it doesn’t quite reach the heights of the classics it hopes to revise or break any new ground, it is still an intelligent and atmospheric ghost story.
EDIT – In advance of the release on DVD on 23rd February, the film’s director, Adam Wimpenny, has prepared a small little taster of the film featuring interviews with some of the cast.
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