April 2016:
Deciding to properly explore Czech cinema by watching (and reviewing) one Czech flick a day for a month,I began to gather titles up. Being a fan of all three versions of The Woman In Black that I've tracked down, (after being spooked by the 2012 film I got Susan Hill's superb novel for my birthday,and after having it at the top of my "wish list" since 2012,at last caught the haunting stage adaptation last year) I was excited to find an "unofficial" Czech adaptation,but disappointed to find it had no English Subtitles.
December 2017:
Checking every so often if Eng Subs would appear,I got hopeful when someone online said they were working on Subs,but sad when they suddenly disappeared. Taking a look at a film board, I was stunned to find that the subtitles had appeared! Which led to me at last meeting Travis.
The plot:
Hired to sort of the affairs of the deceased De Le Meir family, Jeremy Heartley is taken to the family home. Told that the road to the house is only clear twice a day,Heartley announces that he will be staying in the house overnight. Despite their attempts to keep it secret,Heartley notices the coach driver's wife mutter something about the last person who stayed here.Just before he waves them goodbye,Heartley notices a boy standing in a grave yard on the grounds (!) who suddenly disappears. Dusting down the letters and vinyl recordings in the home, Heartley discovers that wife/mother of the family Rebecca mysterious ran off from the house one day in search of fame. As he starts making notes,the boy from the graveyard keeps appearing and asks him to play,but each time Heartley tries to answer him,the boy disappears.
View on the film:
Going in a similar vein to Anna Procházková's fascinating 1971 Czech TV movie of Dracula, co-writer/(with Jirí Hanák) director Václav Postránecký & cinematographer Vladimír Opletal play within the limitations of a TV film budget via boiling up an incredibly eerie atmosphere, lit by tightly coiled shots scanning each room for a jump-scare shock. Mostly taking place in one (very large) room, Postránecký makes every inch of the place feel filled with mystery via elegant voice-overs uncovering the horrors of the house, that build up tension to each time Heartley goes outside to the fog covered grounds.
Unofficially adapting Susan Hill's book The Woman in Black,the screenplay by Jirí Hanák and Václav Postránecký display the strength Hill's creation has in its flexibility for different interpretations,with the sight of a ghostly figure by the graves,the unidentified sound of steps around the house, and the enticing mystery of a locked room all brimming with the Gothic Horror roots of its origins. Taking the death of children curse of the book into an unsettling, optimistic direction, the writers superbly thread the ghostly haunting from the boy in black with creepy psychological drama,that becomes unveiled with each passing letter Heartley finds of Rebecca,as the boy in black stands by the grave awaiting the next unlucky soul.
Deciding to properly explore Czech cinema by watching (and reviewing) one Czech flick a day for a month,I began to gather titles up. Being a fan of all three versions of The Woman In Black that I've tracked down, (after being spooked by the 2012 film I got Susan Hill's superb novel for my birthday,and after having it at the top of my "wish list" since 2012,at last caught the haunting stage adaptation last year) I was excited to find an "unofficial" Czech adaptation,but disappointed to find it had no English Subtitles.
December 2017:
Checking every so often if Eng Subs would appear,I got hopeful when someone online said they were working on Subs,but sad when they suddenly disappeared. Taking a look at a film board, I was stunned to find that the subtitles had appeared! Which led to me at last meeting Travis.
The plot:
Hired to sort of the affairs of the deceased De Le Meir family, Jeremy Heartley is taken to the family home. Told that the road to the house is only clear twice a day,Heartley announces that he will be staying in the house overnight. Despite their attempts to keep it secret,Heartley notices the coach driver's wife mutter something about the last person who stayed here.Just before he waves them goodbye,Heartley notices a boy standing in a grave yard on the grounds (!) who suddenly disappears. Dusting down the letters and vinyl recordings in the home, Heartley discovers that wife/mother of the family Rebecca mysterious ran off from the house one day in search of fame. As he starts making notes,the boy from the graveyard keeps appearing and asks him to play,but each time Heartley tries to answer him,the boy disappears.
View on the film:
Going in a similar vein to Anna Procházková's fascinating 1971 Czech TV movie of Dracula, co-writer/(with Jirí Hanák) director Václav Postránecký & cinematographer Vladimír Opletal play within the limitations of a TV film budget via boiling up an incredibly eerie atmosphere, lit by tightly coiled shots scanning each room for a jump-scare shock. Mostly taking place in one (very large) room, Postránecký makes every inch of the place feel filled with mystery via elegant voice-overs uncovering the horrors of the house, that build up tension to each time Heartley goes outside to the fog covered grounds.
Unofficially adapting Susan Hill's book The Woman in Black,the screenplay by Jirí Hanák and Václav Postránecký display the strength Hill's creation has in its flexibility for different interpretations,with the sight of a ghostly figure by the graves,the unidentified sound of steps around the house, and the enticing mystery of a locked room all brimming with the Gothic Horror roots of its origins. Taking the death of children curse of the book into an unsettling, optimistic direction, the writers superbly thread the ghostly haunting from the boy in black with creepy psychological drama,that becomes unveiled with each passing letter Heartley finds of Rebecca,as the boy in black stands by the grave awaiting the next unlucky soul.
