The night finally arrived when I set out accompanied by daughter Manda to view the movie The Woman in Black. We found ourselves in a state of high excitement.

We were not alone. The parking lot was packed. The theater was filled to capacity.

I had predicted, after reviewing Susan Hill‘s novel The Woman in Black in an earlier post, that I might prefer the movie version of this story. It’s a close call, but I think I do prefer the movie. As Manda pointed out, film, as a medium, just lends itself to a scarier ghostly experience than does the printed page. There were a couple of moments of visual supremacy–a handprint on a window followed by a superimposed ghost image viewed from outside–that would elude the form of a novel.

And this ghost-viewed-from-without scene in the film drives a type of dramatic irony in which the audience knows something the character does not. Impossible in a book without employing a clunky, antiquated omniscient viewpoint. I can tell you the audience loved this deliciously chilling image.

That brings up another point–the audience. This movie will be most enjoyable viewed in a theater. The collective gasps and nervous laughs added to the experience. Sort of like Paranormal Activity–way more fun in the company of others. At one point, a vulnerable Daniel Radcliffe was imperiled by the looming ghost, and an audience member shouted, “Use your wand, Harry!”

You had to be there.

Although this movie doesn’t line up with my three favorite ghost movies–The Sixth Sense, What Lies Beneath, The Gift–I definitely recommend The Woman in Black for a fun night of thrills and chills.