TheRetroCritic

As good as it is to see Hammer back in town, so far their movie choices haven't exactly been mind-blowing. The Woman In Black , if the play was anything to go by, seemed like a promising vehicle though. With its moody, dated look, an effective ghost story at its heart and more than just some woman wearing a silly mask (see the play) to scare the bejeesus out of us. Daniel Radcliffe is our protagonist and heads to the rather unpleasant, reportedly haunted, house in the middle of nowhere. There's also a small town nearby with a bunch of dodgy inhabitants all hiding some sort of big secret which might have something to do with several kids randomly committing suicide around the village. Yes it's pretty standard and very predictable but it's also very Hammer so there was a lot of schlock potential there! These guys practically invented this nonsense, surely this should be a walk in the park for them. Well, yes and no. There is a sense throughout The Woman In Black

Only a Watchmen from TheRetroCritic on Vimeo .

Frankenstein Created Woman indeed...or rather...a man within a woman. Yes, don't be fooled by the straightforward title, this is as random as a Frankenstein film can get. Not really actually, there's always Frankenstein Conquers The World . One of Hammer's last films, this is also one of its best. Peter Cushing has never been cooler, the whole thing looks fab, Thorley Walters is a lot of fun as Frankenstein's bumbling right-hand man and the villains are a positively odious lot and not too dissimilar from the Clockwork Orange gang or the nasty fox-hunters from Plague of the Zombies . The real strength of the film is that it introduces us to a young troubled couple we actually get attached to only to turn everything upside down as Frankenstein's well-meaning (or not) experiment once again backfires. As tragic as the story is, the film never forgets to be fun and, indeed, as preposterous as it all is, the silliness feels essential. Besides, those ann