Watched the film version of The Woman in Black for the first time this weekend. Perhaps I shouldn't have recently seen the 1989 TV version scripted by Nigel Kneale in 1989, because that's still the best version for me and the film did not compare all that well to it for me. There are quite a number of differences between the two and I believe that possibly the film version is nearer the original novel. Certainly, Susan Hill is happy with it, though she wasn't quite so pleased with Nigel Kneale's version from what I've heard. Even so, that's the one that still strikes me as the more powerful, effective piece of drama. Which is not to say I didn't enjoy the film. That has a tremendous cast and the sets could hardly be bettered, though it did seem to rely too much on shock effects - the cinematic version of someone shouting "Boo!" in your ear too often, and I didn't think enough was made of the ghostly fatal carriage accident re-enacted on the causeway, but it was sincerely made and had some genuine chills.
Of the recent Hammer Films I would place it third to Let Me In and Wake Wood and as a ghost story The Awakening, scripted by Stephen Volk, was much, much better.