The Woman in Black

Warning: This post is going to be FULL of spoilers. So, if you haven't read the book or seen the movie, and you don't want it to be spoiled, then don't read this post. XD

A while ago, I was invited over to my friend's house to see The Woman in Black, aka my first horror film. It was pretty good, and I enjoyed most of it.
Until the end.
Why?
Why didn't I like the end?
BECAUSE NOTHING CHANGES.
I'm not kidding. Nothing changes. To quote... Someone... I want to say it was Mikel... "They started at square zero, and went to square negative one!"
YES.
Yes, yes they did.

Okay. So, basically, you have this awesome movie, and you ruin it by having nothing change. Jennet doesn't go away. She's still there, presumably still causing children to kill themselves... AND Arthur and his son die? Really? That's so dumb, I literally ranted about it to anyone who would listen for days.
So guess what I did.
I went and read the book by Susan Hill!

And I will say this: The book had a better ending. Kind of.

See, Arthur doesn't die in it. His son does, but then he gets remarried.
But there are cons to the book as well.

Namely, I don't like the way that the book didn't develop the characters and mystery/story of Jennet very much. Nothing really happens to Arthur. Nothing to make him as terrified as he should be... he goes there, he sees the woman in black, he gets scared (as he should be), and he leaves. I think the movie does a better job with developing the story behind the woman in black, and I think it also does a better job in making the stakes higher. You don't just think "oh, wow, I guess his kid is going to die", you feel it as a sort of terrible fate. Like, it's not a question at all.

Besides that, I rather liked Arthur's character better in the movie, although I like his background better in the book.

Altogether, I think it was a pretty awful movie (from the ending), and a decent book. In my opinion, if they changed the ending of the movie, just so that Jennet goes away- so that something changes- it would be probably one of the best movies I've ever seen. :)


Now, it has also been pointed out to me that, seeing how it's the first horror movie I've seen, I'm not used to the way that the bad guys win because that's just how it works in horror stories.
I have a few objections to that.
Namely:
The book "The Woman in Black", "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde", and "The Invisible Man".
Guess what.
THEY ALL HAVE GOOD ENDINGS.
So, I'm still indignant at the ending of the movie The Woman in Black.
But I liked it.
Just not the ending. <_<