It’s 2012 and the old-fashioned haunted house movie has been dead for years, no pun intended. Modern horror movies focus more on the villain, taking the entire movie to develop the monster stalking the main characters.

Therefore, it’s wonderful to see a movie that focuses more on the characters rather than the villain, keeping the titular “Woman in Black” absent and mysterious most of the movie.

Set in early 20th century England, “The Woman in Black” stars Daniel Radcliffe in his first non-Potter movie as Arthur Kipps, a struggling lawyer. Recently widowed and desperately trying to care for his son, he gets sent on an assignment by his law firm to settle the affairs of a recently deceased recluse.

When Kipps arrives at the house, he begins to see a phantom known to the locals as the Woman in Black. Then strange things start happening.

Radcliffe is great in this movie but is obviously trying not to be typecast as a Harry Potter. Radcliffe is made to look much rougher in this movie than the last Potter films through the use of stubble and a different haircut.

While most of the locals seem superstitious and odd, Kipps has one ally in local landowner Sam Daily, played by Ciarán Hinds. Hinds is great and dominates the screen playing the part of the skeptical but intelligent sidekick.

The movie is particularly well-paced, starting the scares with slow creepiness and building up to chaotic all-hell-breaks-loose scares.

The movie feels like a classic horror movie similar to “The Haunting” (the 1963 one, not the horrid one with Owen Wilson), using mostly sound effects and camera tricks to create the tension. The cinematography is very dark and gritty, which adds to the creepy aesthetic of the house.

While it may seem like a movie made in the 70’s, it plays off of modern horror stereotypes, never giving the audience the scare they are expecting.

I’m not a horror movie fan, so this was especially terrifying to me. Admittedly, I’m a bit of a wuss and at one point I grabbed my girlfriend and shouted, “I just want to go home!”

The movie serves as the first movie in the Hammer studios return to original filmmaking and it makes me excited about the future of creepy horror movies.