‘The Woman in Black’ very nearly suffocates under the mounting weight of its gothic kitsch — an abandoned house, child ghosts, spooky dolls, oh my! — but nevertheless summons ornately crafted, old-fashioned suspense. This is the second film for British director James Watkins, whose previous “Eden Lake” gathered an intriguing story about class out of a confrontation in the woods between a vacationing couple (Michael Fassbender and Kelly Reilly) and a violent gang of youths. Watkins prefers the term “thriller” to “horror,” and by these two films, it’s obvious he’s interested in using fright for more than just shock and something closer to real life.

In his first post-Potter film, Daniel Radcliffe stars as the struggling, widowed London lawyer Arthur Kipps. With a little facial scruff and clad in an early 20th century suit of the time, Radcliffe looks respectably adult. Kipps is a morose young man, still grieving the loss of his wife in childbirth. His now 4-year-old son (Misha Handley) already has him down, in caricature, drawing him as a stick figure with a giant frown. Yes, young Harry Potter is now a (believable) dad, which means we can all collectively sigh and pretend to shoot ourselves.

Remote
He’s dispatched to the (fictional) remote eastern British village of Crythin Gifford to put in order the estate of the recently deceased Alice Drablow. The sense of foreboding comes quickly and thickly, as the townspeople eye him suspiciously and Kipps is placed in an inn room where three young sisters killed themselves. Death hangs over the town so heavily that whimpering comes even from a parrot, which no doubt had plenty of chances to mimic the sound. The ivy-covered Eel Marsh House, which Kipps is to sort, is classically menacing in the Victorian way. Set back from the village down the ominously named Nine Lives Causeway, it’s an island in a cold marsh that ebbs with the tide.

Inside the cobwebbed home, reflections, apparitions and shadows steadily increase as Kipps digs into the history of the Drablows as well as the village. Tragedies of the town’s children populate its past and present — occurrences that seem connected to a lurking, dark figure. As he always does, Ciaran Hinds considerably helps the film. (He also played the lead in another fine film that mixed grief with the supernatural, 2010’s “The Eclipse.”) Hinds plays Samuel Daily, the only friend in town to Kipps and, himself, one of those who has lost a child. His wife (an enjoyably loony Janet McTeer) has gone off the deep end, to the point that her two small dogs dine at the table with them like Paris Hilton Chihuahuas.

Daily is the staunch holdout in the superstitious town. Declaring paranormal worries “rubbish,” he warns Kipps not to “go chasing shadows.” But even he, when Kipps declares he’ll stay overnight at Eel Marsh, raises an eyebrow and says, “Take the dog.”
“The Woman in Black” is adapted from Susan Hill’s 1983 novel, which was earlier turned into a long-running play in London. It’s the second film from the reconstituted Hammer Film Productions, the famed British house of horror best known for the lush gothics it churned out in the ’60s and ’70s.
Watkins’ film, nifty and taught, is a worthy enough heir to that tradition. It’s a film, ultimately, about the trappings of grief wallowing.
As a wand-less detective, Radcliffe comports himself well. He plays Kipps with downcast desperation, striving simultaneously after the memory of his wife and the future of his son.

Cliches
The basic cliches on which the film is built threaten to overwhelm it. And it could certainly use a little more dialogue and a bit less creaky hallways. But the appeal of a good ol’ ghost story is strong, and the simplicity of “The Woman in Black” suits the tradition. “The Woman in Black,” a CBS Films release, is rated PG-13 for thematic material and violence, disturbing images. Running time: 95 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.


It owes a great debt to the found-footage concept behind “The Blair Witch Project,” has some of the aesthetic and tonal touches of “Cloverfield” and probes the same sorts of philosophical notions about the burden of power that serve as the basis for the “X-Men” series.
It owes a great debt to the found-footage concept behind “The Blair Witch Project,” has some of the aesthetic and tonal touches of “Cloverfield” and probes the same sorts of philosophical notions about the burden of power that serve as the basis for the “X-Men” series.
And yet, “Chronicle” still has enough energy and ingenuity to serve as thrilling entertainment all its own.
First-time feature director Josh Trank and writer Max Landis (as in son-of-John the director) have come up with a clever way to tell a hand-held, point-of-view story without relying on the same old grainy, headache-inducing shaky-cam techniques we so often must endure: The camera can levitate. Because the three teenagers who take turns operating it have acquired the power of telekinesis.

These are three recognizable high school types: nerdy loner Andrew (Dane DeHaan, who resembles a young Leonardo DiCaprio), popular athlete Steve (the charismatic Michael B. Jordan) and Matt (Alex Russell), Andrew’s scholarly cousin who falls somewhere in the middle of the social hierarchy. One night in the woods outside a party, they happen to come together to discover a hole in the ground and decide to explore it. Since Andrew chronicles everything with his video camera — because everyone his age chronicles everything — he documents what they find: some sort of glowing cosmic thing which fascinates them, and also gives them the ability to move and manipulate things with their minds.
Rather than embark on some important superhero adventure, they do what regular kids would do. They mess with people at Wal-Mart. They toy with pretty girls. They get really good at pong. They become emboldened individually and egg each other on — and they find that this new gift is like a muscle that gets stronger the more they use it. Eventually they figure out how to fly, which provides some of the film’s most exciting and startling moments and also marks the beginning of the end of all their seemingly harmless, adolescent fun. (The visual effects are surprisingly seamless and realistic and, until the end at least, feel believable because they’re not grandiose.)

“Chronicle” gets dark quickly, especially as the put-upon Andrew finally comes into his own physically, if not from an emotional maturity standpoint. Long the victim of his alcoholic father’s abuse and the bullying of his classmates, he finds himself heading toward the dark side of the force. The final act goes a little haywire, especially as the camera device collapses in favor of various points of view. Surveillance footage shows up out of nowhere, which takes us distractingly out of the picture, given that the thread that held the narrative together was the idea that we were always watching something that one of these kids shot themselves. “Chronicle” had even gone to the trouble to add a second camera, from pretty video blogger Casey (Ashley Hinshaw), just to maintain the integrity of this conceit. Still, this is an auspicious beginning for a couple of exciting, young filmmaking voices. “Chronicle,” a 20th Century Fox release, is rated PG-13 for intense action and violence, thematic material, some language, sexual content and teen drinking. Running time: 84 minutes. Three stars out of four. (AP)