(This review may contain spoilers).
This movie was one I was especially eager to see… partly because I like horror movies; partly because I recognised one of the key actors and knew I’d enjoyed his work before.
This movie was definitely a horror. It was claimed to be a Gothic romance elsewhere… but it’s pretty far from that. I found it entertaining, but there were some really creepy, jumpy moments… as well as some gory scenes.
The very first scene did a good job of setting the feel for the rest of the movie, I felt. I thought Edith was quite a sympathetic character from the start, but she did come across as very innocent and naive. It was a bit difficult to believe in the feelings Thomas had for Edith. The relationship between Thomas and his sister was filled with conflict, but it was pretty easy to guess what some of the twists were.
It was good to see Edith’s relationship with her father and I recognised the actor playing him, who I thought portrayed the character really well.
The appearances of the ghosts were a bit confusing at first, but the different looks they had made sense by the end of the movie. While there were some predictable elements, there was quite a bit of tension in this movie… and there were some good moments of humour as well.
I did like Alan’s character, though I would have liked to see a bit more in the way of interaction between him and Edith. I thought it was interesting to see how the ghosts carried the ‘scars’ from how they died.
By the end of the movie, I felt it had got a little silly… but up until that point, I was entertained, even though I didn’t find myself personally getting very spooked.
I do think Tom Hiddleston is very good at playing ambiguous characters and it was good to see the actors in their roles. While I didn’t enjoy this movie enough to watch it again any time soon… I did enjoy it enough to spend a couple of hours watching it with my sister.
Ink of Blood 