The Woman in Black; BBQ

[telophase]

Did two things today (omg! actual things!).

1) Toby and I went to Tim Love's new restaurant, the Woodshed Smokehouse. They encourage family-style eating, so we shared an order of pecan-smoked pork ribs, a bourbon and Coke pork banh mi, and on the recommendation of the server, an ear of Mexican corn. Fantastic. The ribs weren't spicy, although herb-encrusted, the banh mi was spicy, although if you picked off the chiles it was fine for those of us with wimpy palates, and the corn had just a hint of spicy - it was rubbed in Parmesan and chiles. The banh mi comes deassembled, with a piece of pita bread and a couple of corn tortillas, so you can put it together to your own specs. I loved that pork.

I am v. v. happy that it is close enough to work that I can take an early or late lunch and visit it and miss the parking and traffic problems.

2) Afterward we went to see The Woman in Black. Verdict: it's fine if you like traditional ghost stories. We're not sorry we went, but it wasn't as good as I hoped it was going to be. As some review or other said, it couldn't decide if it wanted to be a jump-and-scare or a psychological thriller, and I'd have preferred the latter.

There were four teenage girls sitting in front of us who spent the entire movie jumping and screaming, and one of whom got up and left halfway through. I have to wonder if they'd ever seen any scary movie ever, because all the jump-and-scare stuff was telegraphed, and if you missed the visual cues that something was about to show up, the music was bashing you over the head with HEY! ANY SECOND NOW! JUST ABOUT NOW! HEY! HEY! HEY! LOOK! ISN'T THAT SCARY!

Also: I haven't read the whole book, just the excerpt for the ebook, and I can tell that the movie changed at least one major point in the book. For better or worse I won't know until I actually read it.

Comments

[l_elfie]

i will be 100% honest: no matter how many times i see the same old jump-out horror stuff....it still works on me. i think the problem is that i am secretly afraid of many things so horror movies end up bringing that out. XD hence: i do not watch horror movies. (well, except creature flicks. i can watch a zombie movie or whatever without any problems.)

i do hope the woman in black and danrad's continued success in plays means that he will eventually be involved in something i can see. XD

[keelieinblack.livejournal.com]

it couldn't decide if it wanted to be a jump-and-scare or a psychological thriller, and I'd have preferred the latter.

Solidarity! I felt much the same--I didn't dislike it, and I loved the scenery and sets and period detail, but story-wise I went in hoping for something more along the lines of The Innocents or The Haunting, so the scare chords and in-your-face ghosts were sort of a disappointment.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Yup. I wanted to remain unsure if the ghost was real or not for most of the movie, and the movie made a decision early on and stuck with it. I tried hard, though. At one point I was rooting for the Jane Eyre madwoman-in-the-attic interpretation!

I've seen both versions of The Haunting and the early one is much better! Haven't seen The Innocents--is The Others a remake of it? I've seen the latter, but if Innocents is better, I'll throw it on the Netflix queue because I did enjoy Others. (Well, even if it isn't I'll throw it on if you rec it, as I like eerie ghost stories!)

[keelieinblack.livejournal.com]

Yes, the original version of The Haunting is far, far superior to its remake! :D The Innocents is a film version of Henry James's "The Turn of the Screw", and I'd rec it even if you don't like the story it's based on--it's definitely got a psychological bent, and the director makes good use of sound and cinematic effects with light and shadow to add creepiness without going overboard or revealing too much. I've found it to be very unsettling, even on re-watches. Plus Deborah Kerr is awesome in it.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks! I've never actually read James' story. I'll throw it on the queue!

[scribblemoose]

A friend of mine was an extra in 'Woman in Black'. /trivia. :)

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Nifty! Do you know what scene/s? (And was the shoot as cold and damp as it seemed to be? XD)

[scribblemoose]

There he is on the left! Yes, he said it was extremely cold and damp, but as he's used to being a Viking on weekends he took it in his stride. ;) He also said Daniel Radcliffe was really lovely to all the extras, taking time to talk to them and thank them for turning out. (It was a paying gig but as you probably know extras don't get paid much on gigs like this, so that was much appreciated.)

[farli.livejournal.com]

I love the book. We had a reading of it in my class for English Lit. when I was 14, and it's stayed with me ever since. I then had the pleasure of seeing the stage play in London, which was fantasticly done and set just the right tone.

I'm kind of terrified to see the movie, I don't know if I'll appreciate the hollywood-changes.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

It pretty much hit all the standard points of a ghost story, so if there were anything unusual about the book, it may have been changed. And as I'd read the beginning of the book, I wasn't expecting the ending of the movie! XD

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

I think I've mentioned before how I was disappointed by The Grudge. Partly, I was not expecting it to be a comedy, but when the two high school (?) girls screamed and ran out, that was pretty funny.