As well as reviving Hammer films and proving there was more to Daniel Radcliffe than a certain boy wizard, Edwardian era set The Woman in Black expertly told an old school ghost story, proving there was more to modern horror than buckets of gore and cheap scares. As is the way with horror movies, a sequel has arrived, and try as hard as it might, it can't shake being a tired re-hash of the original.
The period setting is kept for the sequel, but we're now thrust forward forty years to World War II, and Eel Marsh House is now in a serious state of disrepair, being used to house evacuated school children. Teacher Eve Parkins (Phoebe Fox) senses something is wrong about the house, and soon comes face to face with the spectral Woman in Black, who sets her sights on one of her charges, the orphaned Edward (Oaklee Penderghast).
Everything begins pretty well for The Woman in Black: Angel of Death, setting up a great dark tone and atmosphere that is helped immensely by the era and setting that we rarely see used in the horror genre. But that all disappears once Eel Marsh house makes it's appearance, devolving into cliched scenes that fall short of building any real tension. It isn't helped by a dull and drab look, with most of the early scenes being so frustratingly dark that we can't actually make out whats going on. There was much fun made at the movies expense with the release of an early trailer that was so dark and gloomy that we couldn't see anything, but having seen the film now, it was quite apt. The genuine fear that was cultivated in the original is gone here, mainly because the story is almost carbon copy of what transpired in the first movie. There is some admittedly good set up as the Woman in Black initially reaches out to Edward, cumulating in an extremely scene of deformed wind up toys going haywire on their own, but that sees the movie playing its hand far too early, as the plot proceeds to plod along with a group of characters that as dull as their surroundings. Delving into the past of the Woman in Black doesn't throw up much new, and only succeeds in bringing the story to screeching halt it struggles to recover from with a finale to caps off the movie in eye rollingly predictable fashion.
A dull and tired re-thread of a far superior movie, The Woman in Black: The Angel of Death is the worst example of a horror movie sequel, amounting to nothing more than an ill advised cash in.
The period setting is kept for the sequel, but we're now thrust forward forty years to World War II, and Eel Marsh House is now in a serious state of disrepair, being used to house evacuated school children. Teacher Eve Parkins (Phoebe Fox) senses something is wrong about the house, and soon comes face to face with the spectral Woman in Black, who sets her sights on one of her charges, the orphaned Edward (Oaklee Penderghast).
Everything begins pretty well for The Woman in Black: Angel of Death, setting up a great dark tone and atmosphere that is helped immensely by the era and setting that we rarely see used in the horror genre. But that all disappears once Eel Marsh house makes it's appearance, devolving into cliched scenes that fall short of building any real tension. It isn't helped by a dull and drab look, with most of the early scenes being so frustratingly dark that we can't actually make out whats going on. There was much fun made at the movies expense with the release of an early trailer that was so dark and gloomy that we couldn't see anything, but having seen the film now, it was quite apt. The genuine fear that was cultivated in the original is gone here, mainly because the story is almost carbon copy of what transpired in the first movie. There is some admittedly good set up as the Woman in Black initially reaches out to Edward, cumulating in an extremely scene of deformed wind up toys going haywire on their own, but that sees the movie playing its hand far too early, as the plot proceeds to plod along with a group of characters that as dull as their surroundings. Delving into the past of the Woman in Black doesn't throw up much new, and only succeeds in bringing the story to screeching halt it struggles to recover from with a finale to caps off the movie in eye rollingly predictable fashion.
A dull and tired re-thread of a far superior movie, The Woman in Black: The Angel of Death is the worst example of a horror movie sequel, amounting to nothing more than an ill advised cash in.
