Won't Someone Think of the Children...?
Firstly, I am thrilled that The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death is rated a 15. The first feeling that comes to mind when someone mentions Woman in Black is that of dread. Nightmarish dread that was caused not by the film, but the screaming and shouting of Harry Potter fans that were in the same screening as i when the first Woman in Black was released in 2012 due to the BBFC granting the film a 12 certificate and thus, allowing avid Daniel Radcliffe/Potter fans to see their beloved up on the screen once again. Unfortunately for me, this resulted in hysterical screaming, constant talking, and the occasional REALLY LOUD fits of laughter, distracting me from what I thought, in the end, was a rather solid and spooky adaptation of Susan Hill's 1983 horror novella. What a joy then to see not only a sequel that featured no one of "fangirl" capabilities starring in it, but a 15 classification, wiping the fundamental existence of screaming youths from my cinema. Great start.
Now I have seen the film, my early prediction of screaming youths being all but eradicated from the showing was misjudged and unfortunately, I was sat amongst what i feared most from a cinematic audience. Screaming. Shouting. Idle talking about where the film was going. The 15 certificate clearly had not completely solved the problem of the first film, and with this, I left the film deeply upset and rather annoyed. Anyway, how was the film i hear you ask? In a word or two; rather mediocre. In terms of plot, teacher Eve Parkins, played pretty well by Phoebe Fox, is evacuated, along with a group of children, including Edward, played by a Damian-esque Oaklee Pendergast, to Eel Marsh house during World War II, where they are greeted with strange noises, disappearing children, and a non-convincing performance by Jeremy Irvine as a supposedly discharged war pilot suffering from PTSD. What follows is a 90 minute mash-up of jump scares, complete darkness, and a feeling that I had seen this movie once before.
Don't get me wrong, I love a good jump scare, but when they are so obviously going to happen it detracts from the overall power of fear they are attempting to bring, and such a problem was evident throughout the course of the film. In fact, the only time I felt partially threatened by the titular character was during the last ten minutes of the movie when there is a certain ambiguity to what was going to occur, yet for a supposed horror movie, 10 minutes out of 90 doesn't cut the mustard in my book. On the positive side, the child performers are good, particularly the character of Edward, the dark, Gothic tone of the film is present throughout and never lets off, and the film successfully tells a story, albeit a plot pretty similar to the first film, within a sensible amount of time.
In conclusion, The Woman in Black: Angel of Death, doesn't quite match the heights of the first film, and if anything, resembles too much of the plot and tone from it, resulting in a film that can only be classed as 'more of the same'. The endless jump scares may excite some horror fans, but in my mind such parlor tricks are cheap and un-imaginative resulting in an overall feeling of content, but not in anyway excitement or horror.
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