THE WOMAN IN BLACK 2: ANGEL OF DEATH
DIRECTOR: Tom Harper
CAST: Phoebe Fox, Jeremy Irvine, Helen McCrory, Leanne Best, Ned Dennehy and Oaklee Pendergast
CLASSIFICATION: PG13 VH
RUNNING TIME: 98 minutes
RATING: ***
SEQUELS are risky gambits. Sometimes they pay off and sometimes they don’t. It’s the nature of beast in the film-making industry.
After a creepily albeit compelling undertaking with Harry Potter’s Daniel Radcliffe in The Woman in Black, I wasn’t sure the franchise had much creative room to manoeuvre to churn out a second one. I’m still not convinced this film makes the benchmark. Where this sequel does render me impressed, however, is in the execution rather than the plot.
Seeing the abandoned Eel Marsh House again invokes a heady sensation of déjà vu for fans. And the director feeds off the ambiance of unease for the better part of the film.
But first, let’s take stock of the characters in this outing.
Set in the calamitous throes of World War II, The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death is centred on headmistress Jean Hogg (McCrory) and teacher Eve Parkins (Fox), who are escorting several children – one of whom is Edward (Pendergast) who has stopped speaking after the untimely death of his parents – to safety in the countryside town of Crythin Gifford.
On the train ride there, Parkins befriends Harry Burnstow (Irvine), a rather charming pilot, who is situated close to where their temporary lodgings are.
When they finally arrive at the Eel Marsh House, Parkins’s sixth sense picks up on an unsettling presence within. At the same time, she is haunted by images of her past and giving up her child.
While she fobs the incongruous happenings off at first, they become harder to ignore after one of the boys, who has been bullying Edward, is found dead on the beach with his body wrapped up in barbed wire. Then a little girl is almost strangled. And Edward has become unnaturally attached to a decayed doll from the house.
With the help of Harry, Parkins decides to find out more about the home and its previous owner and realises that Edward and the kids are in grave danger with more sightings of the ghostly apparition of a woman.
Everything from the dreary backdrop to the scenery bolsters the thematically eerie tone of the story. And that’s where Harper harnesses his skill. He combines that with a psychological meltdown of his characters.
The drawback, though, is that the story, while laden with a few jump-in-your-seat moments, tends to dawdle.
Although Harper tries to create tension between Hogg, a detached authoritarian and cynic of the paranormal, and Parkins as they clash over the well-being of the kids in their care, it misfires.
Unlike James Watkins (The Woman in Black), Harper becomes more concerned with generating hair-raising thrills than delivering a solid and satisfying tale. And there is a strong possibility that a sequel is on the cards.
Not as gripping as the original – but it works for what it is: an average premise concealed in an ominous horror, spruced with interesting moments and enigmatic characters.
If you liked The Woman in Black, The Conjuring and Mama, you might enjoy this.