The Woman in Black has been cut by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) to secure a 12A certificate.
James Watkins’s adaptation of Susan Hill’s novel stars Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe in the lead role as lawyer Arthur Kipps.
The BBFC confirmed that six seconds of “strong violence” and “horror” had been cut and other scenes darkened and sound levels reduced to gain its 12A rating.
“This work was cut,” the board confirmed. “The cut(s) were made at the request of the distributor to achieve a particular category.
“To obtain this category cuts of 0m 6s were required. Distributor chose to reduce moments of strong violence / horror in order to achieve a ’12A’ classification.”
It added: “Cuts made in line with BBFC Guidelines and policy. A ’15’ classification without cuts was available.
“In addition to the six seconds of visual cuts, substitutions were also made by darkening some shots and by reducing the sound levels on others.”
The board also advised consumers that the 94m 47s cut of The Woman in Black “contains intense supernatural threat and horror”.
Radcliffe has claimed that The Woman in Black “is going to be terrifying” and that test audiences were “leaping out of their seats” during screenings.
He has been praised by Albert Nobbs star Janet McTeer for “trying to do something totally new to him” with the Hammer Film production.