Review of The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death (2014) by Filipeneto — 03 May 2019

Much weaker than the first film.

This film is the sequel to another, which was a success and which, in turn, was the remake of a TV movie of the 80's. This time, the house of the swamp is occupied by a group of children from London , in the middle of World War II, in order to protect themselves from the German bombings. They are accompanied by a small group of adults where Eve fits, a young woman with a mysterious past who soon realizes the horror that inhabits that house. It is up to her to protect the children from the dark entity that wants them dead.

Personally, I find this film considerably weaker than the first. The script is very simple and underdeveloped. We never really feel the danger of war, and all the action separates from the context of the time, only managing to take advantage of the environment, the scenarios. The war was only a pretext to fill the haunted house of children, coming from nothing, easy prey of the murderous creature that lives there. The characters were also thought of in the worst way. Too cliché, we have an aviator traumatized and frustrated with himself, a loving young woman who is pursued by a complicated past and a skeptical elderly, who only believes in supernatural phenomena when they literally jump in front of her face. The scares are basic, the film fails to create a tense and disturbing environment.

Technically, the film clearly displays its low budget: all scenarios are basic, with the main house being emptied of all the decadent and exquisite scenery of the first film. Cinematography is overly dark and this makes the film very boring. There are some details of the film that, too, I misunderstood, such as the emptying of the neighboring village to the marsh house. Did they all die? Was it the creature that killed them? Are they gone? What happened?

This movie is bad and can not scare you. It's not a movie that I believe you can see more than once.