The first thing to know about The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death is that it is a sequel that really didn’t need to happen. The first Woman in Black movie from 2012 starring Daniel Radcliffe was an interesting and somewhat old school horror movie. I can’t exactly say the same for this movie although like the first one it wasn’t completely disappointing. It has some good acting and a decent premise and although I don’t think it needs to exist I found some enjoyment out of it.
The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death takes place about forty years after the events of the first movie. It is the middle of World War II and school children from London have been evacuated to the Eal Marsh House. Accompanying them is their school teacher Eve Parkins played by Phoebe Fox and the school’s headmistress Jean Hogg played by Helen McCrory. At first the house just seems old, but Eve Parkins starts to get the creepy feeling that they aren’t the only ones inhabiting the house.
The first thing I really liked about this movie is the set up. Sure it isn’t completely original although I’m at least glad the filmmakers did not resort to just making another family in the haunted house Poltergeist ripoff. Another thing I thought was decent was the acting. They aren’t given a ton to work with from the script, but both Phoebe Fox and Helen McCrory give good performances. McCrory goes a little overboard near the end, but I can forgive that because in the rest of the movie she does a good job at playing a realistic headmistress bitch.
As for the story overall I can’t say it was great, but it does get the job done. It has quite a few cliches when it comes to the plot and the filmmakers couldn’t help but do the most obvious horror trope that has been popular for years now which is the jump scare. The movie has a ton of silent lead-in jump scares and although those can be unique compared to the old fashioned music lead-in jump scare they just aren’t that clever anymore. One of the biggest problems with horror movies today is that they rely way too much on the jump scare tactic instead of letting a creepy movie play out with interesting characters. Cheap jump scares are extremely unoriginal and easy to do and I would just love to see some people make horror movies from a more Hitchcockian point of view.
The island that the house is located on isn’t nearly as well presented in this movie as it was in the first movie. It feels like the cinematographer in this movie just came really cheap. One of my favorite things about the first movie is that the house and the island almost felt like it’s own character. In this movie the filmmaker really dropped the ball when it came to giving the house or the island any type of interesting qualities.
I can’t say this movie was a total miss. It isn’t quite as good as the first movie, but it does have it’s moments. Sequels and film franchises are becoming more and more popular in Hollywood and unfortunately that strategy has been a common nuisance in the horror genre since the ’80s. Film studio execs love to take a good idea and just squeeze the life out of it until there is just nothing left. The Woman in Black 2 is one of those sequels and although it wasn’t awful I fear that if they make anymore it will just cheapen the original story.
Dave’s Rating- ★★★(3) out of ★★★★★(5)
