MovieChat Forums > The Woman in Black (2012) Discussion > Ok-ishbut lazy script - spoilers

Ok-ishbut lazy script - spoilers

posted 8 years ago by Kray2013
4 replies | jump to latest

What else can you call a plot that shows promise (albeit with the usual gothic horror elements), is shot ina great location, has good actors but falls prey to a dreadful lack of effort to maintain a consistent story or answer unexplained stuff.

Like the mysterious way Arthur found the child's body which apparently was 'never recovered' and the equally mysterious way the body is preserved

Or the way the dog keeps sometimes showing up but not always when Arthur is in the house

Or the way the townpeople dislike Arthue even before he does any scary-lady spotting [that was ridiculous]

And finally in the end when his own kid is killed.

I man, all of this could have been resolved with a few more minutes of movie time to set up the story better.

Sheesh!

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] morganseer 8 years ago

OK, I cant plug them all up, but:

1) I have to admit I wondered about this as well when watching the movie. But wasn't there a cross or pole close to where the body was? Could "body never found" simply mean "we know where it is, but we don't want to dunk in a pit of mud to bring it up?" The "bog" looked very small to me.

2) Bogs do a great job preserving bodies, even prehistoric ones. Something to do with acidity I think.

3) My old dog often shows up in the garden when I work there, but not always. Sometimes he'd rather be snoozing in his garage

4) European small-townsmen aren't terribly friendly to outsiders; plus in this case Arthur was working for an unpopular family, and they had reasons to anticipate problems.

5) I'm not sure what the OP didn't like about the ending

6) Good point about pulling a car out of mud

7) photos with heads scratched out-- probably done while the woman was still alive and grieving for her child

8) Who made up the rule that endings have to be all good or all bad? I love the way this film ended.

9) Normal or not, I had been introduced to children by my first name. It's common enough in my circles that I didn't think it strange. But perhaps this is never done in UK?

[–] malpearce02 8 years ago

About number 7 we see the photo with no scratched just a minute or so before he turns to look for the source of the noise and when he turns back around its scratched.

[–] superherolu 7 years ago

I thought it was pretty funny how the child's body was never recovered, yet all it took was Arthur mucking around in the mud for less than an hour to find it.
They should have been more clear on that. They should have said that they always knew where the boat sank, but didn't have the power to pull the boat out.