The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death, 2015.
Directed by Tom Harper
Starring Helen McCrory, Jeremy Irvine, Phoebe Fox, Leanne Best, Oaklee Pendergast, Adrian Rawlins, Leilah de Meza, Hayley Joanne Bacon and Ned Dennehy.
SYNOPSIS:
40 years after the first haunting at Eel Marsh House, a group of children evacuated from WWII London arrive, awakening the house’s darkest inhabitant.
Released in 2012, The Woman In Black was admittedly a serviceable horror film amidst a sea of garbage. Not only were the scares somewhat low-key and atmospherically set in a 20th century haunted house in London, it also starred Daniel Radcliffe tackling his first major role since the resolution of the Harry Potter franchise. And honestly, he did a great job of conveying emotion and upping the intensity of the narrative. It wasn’t a great movie by any means, but it was nowhere near as horrific as some of the other spooky tales being pumped out by Hollywood.
Even though the original film was a self-contained story, it did good business meaning that Hollywood is here attempting to create the next big horror franchise. Unfortunately, The Woman In Black: Angel Of Death has nothing in common with its predecessor as far as quality goes. This unnecessary sequel is about as manufactured as they come, lacking a single ounce of creativity. It’s actually comical how predictable the plot is.
What’s frustrating though is how boring the movie is. Half of it is characters slowly walking through the house encountering paranormal events – like a rocking chair moving by itself – that are supposed to scare the viewer, but in reality are just dumb. Absolutely no one attempted to do anything innovative with the script, as evident by just how repetitive and formulaic the whole experience is.
The final act of the film at least tries to be entertaining, but the story jumps the shark so bad it is impossible to take anything seriously. The jump scares come all in full effect along with cheesy pointless romance sub-plots that are sure to annoy. From a narrative standpoint, Angel Of Death is as dull as a horror movie can get and quite literally does nothing right.
What can’t be denied is that the movie does make good use of the haunted mansion again, depicting a dirty and rusted looking place proving that the set designers took their job seriously. They might be the only ones. However, when you factor in that the original film also did this excellently, this time around the spookiness loses its luster. Instead it is gives off a familiar feeling vibe, introducing nothing new.
Finally, I will admit that I started to fall asleep towards the end of the film. The first hour may as well be the cure for insomnia, regardless of the fact that stuff actually happens during the last 30 minutes. I just didn’t care by that point, especially considering anyone familiar with horror movies will have pegged how the film will end along with where the jump scares will come from. The Woman In Black: Angel Of Death is nothing more then a relentlessly boring film devoid of any scares; it only exists because Hollywood thought a possible franchise could be molded out of a successful original flick.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★
Robert Kojder – An aficionado of film, wrestling, and gaming. He currently writes for Flickering Myth, We Got This Covered, and Wrestle Enigma. Follow me on Twitter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Z2vq4CudKRk&list=PL18yMRIfoszFJHnpNzqHh6gswQ0Srpi5E
Originally published January 3, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
