The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
The original The Woman In Black proved to be quite the hot topic back in 2012. Thanks to the book and the movie with actor Daniel Radcliffe playing the main character Arthur Kipps, everybody had at least heard something about the horror story. The Woman In Black 2: Angel of Death takes us back to the Eel Marsh mansion, where the woman still hasn’t found her peace.
The movie is some kind of sequel to the first title but doesn’t feature the original actors and actresses. In Angel of Death, we meet up with teacher Eve Parkins (Phoebe Fox) who tries to get some school kids to a safe place, away from the bombardments in London. What’s a better way to escape the heat of World War II than to go to the countryside, where nobody will bother them (or so they think)? Amongst the children, there’s a small, fragile and traumatized boy called Edward (Oaklee Pendergast) who lost his parents due to the war and is now an orphan. He’s of course very scarred by such events and that’s the reason why the boy stays silent and doesn’t speak a word. Mainly by drawing pictures or writing sentences in his sketchbook, he tries to express his thoughts. The kids are transferred to the well-known Eel Marsh mansion and right of the bat, the molded furniture, cracked walls and overall stuffy look remind you of what happened here in the last movie (if you haven’t seen it yet, well, it wasn’t anything good).
Some rather odd events occur later on in the movie like dolls coming to life, Eve who hears voices in places where there should be none and so on. At one point, one of the children suddenly wanders out of the house, only to be found dead at the marsh. An unfortunate accident, everybody seems to think but soon enough, Eve and her colleague Jean Hogg (Helen McCrory) suspect that the house has a rather strange and dangerous effect on the people inhabiting it. Eve also meets a handsome and friendly pilot called Harry Burnstow (played by Jeremy Irvine, the guy we know from Beyond the Reach). Of course, the handsome guy and the leading character fall in love (although luckily not in an in-your-face way) and this is one of the reasons why Angel of Death can’t reach the same level of quality as the very first The Woman in Black movie.
Whilst the original movie mostly used a more psychological and subtle horror way too scare its audience, Angel of Death goes back to cheap jumpscares, cheesy dialogues and a cliché romance. Not only does this make the movie quite predictable (you just know when something is about to happen all the time), the whole ghost theme feels a bit overdone right from the start instead of letting the viewer decide if something is really out there. As it is now, everybody just screams ghost ghost! and nobody seems to question that by a lot.
The acting in the movie is usually okay but rightfully so, the actors and actresses won’t win an Emmy award for their incredible performances. Main character Eve Parkins is played by Phoebe Fox and sometimes it’s a bit clear she’s not as experienced in acting as her colleague Helen McCrory for example. Her acting is quite prudent at times without really getting through to the audience. She misses a little bit of that extra oomph to make her acting reach the next level. Helen McCrory on the other hand knows how to make a sharp, impression-making appearance once in a while even though she’s got a lot less screen time than Fox. Jeremy Irvine also did a decent job without really standing out, like most of the other cast members. The children’s acting performances were a bit off at times but then again, they are still very young so you can’t really expect a perfect execution on that part.
The Blu-ray of The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death comes with some fun extras like deleted scenes and a making of video. Watching the latter will make you a bit more forgiving for the movie’s mistakes as accompanied with a decent explanation, some director’s choices do make sense in some way. Lastly, there’s the extra The Woman in Black: Angel of Death: Chilling Locations extra in which, as you might’ve guessed, some eerie locations are shown to the audience.
Conclusion
The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death fails in following in the original movie’s footsteps in terms of excitement and subtle horror. The acting is average at best and cheap jumpscares aren’t really enough to make you feel uncomfortable while watching the movie. Helen McCrory’s acting is good and the obvious chemistry between Eve and Harry isn’t all too cheesy, but still, this movie could’ve been a lot better.
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