The Woman in Black original was a fantastic film. It took the scary moments from the stage play and made it just a scary on screen, however I cannot say the same for the sequel.

The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death follows a group of evacuees who have left London for the countryside during World War II. These young children and two of their teachers move into the house once owned by the woman in black and she returns in a ghastly way once again trying to steal and kill these children.

The one big issue I have comparing this film against the original was that the original was the godfather of jump scares. Every two minutes you had a jump scare from a red herring or something actually terrifying, and while we often get at horrors for relying on jump scares I think they really worked well in this film because that was what you expected and that was the whole point of it. It always had you on edge, and in the second film they didn’t rely on jump scares as much as they did in the first, and that wasn’t a good thing. The suspense wasn’t there and I almost wish they had more jump scare red herrings and moments in it because the ones they did have just didn’t hold the same weight.

The first film is fascinating because it throws you into this world of this woman having a power over the village and how she can kill children just by looking at them and it’s a brilliant ghost story, and to try and recreate that excitement again in the sequel just didn’t work. You aren’t as intrigued by the characters as you were in the first, you weren’t as scared by what was going on because you already understood the premise, and for me it’s not a film that I would rush back to watch again any time soon because it just didn’t excite me like the original did.

I think this film could’ve been done in a much better way, it almost seemed to rehash the same kind of story as it did in the first one but with less jump scares and less exciting characters, and so while I really enjoyed the first Woman in Black and it did absolutely terrify me and still does to this day, if I think about it too long the sequel is not one that I would recommend or watch because I think there are better horrors out there that do a similar thing to this film. If you want a great ghost story then watch Ghost Stories because that is an incredible film, or the original Woman in Black again because it is just so much better.

What do you think of The Woman in Black 2?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding