The Woman In Black 2 : Angel of Death (2015)

The first review of 2015 has come, and I have decided to pick a new film for everyone, to give you all a modern recommendation. The Guardian has believed this film to be "inferior" although at the same time, an "effective sequel". With ratings varying everywhere, and reviews glowing negative and positive everywhere across the web, I'd recommend this film everyday for a horror fan, however I can't say it was any better than it's predecessor.
In 2012, The Woman In Black was released and seemed to have a very promising plot and consisted successful horror features. This year, The Woman In Black : Angel Of Death was released, containing a similar idea, and pretty much identical horror features. Therefore, I must say that these films were very equivalent in quality. The ratings across the web are as follows:

• IMDB - 5.6/10
• Meta Critic - 43%
• Rotten Tomatoes - 24%

The ratings presented by the International Movie Data Base and Meta Critic are fairly accurate in my opinion. Even though I didn't see anything special in this film, Rotten Tomatoes have heavily criticised this one.

This film was directed by Tom Harper, and it could be argued that this film didn't live up to it's expectations due to it being only one of the main horrors directed by Harper. It contains a decent run time of 98 minutes which I was happy with. It begins 40 years after Arthur Kipps' experience at Eel Marsh house. A group of children under the care of two women, escaping from war-torn London, arrive to the house and become the next target for the ghost of Jennette Humfrye, otherwise known as The Woman in Black. With the help of a fellow soldier, the women and children must fend off the spirit of Jennette Humfrye, and end her presence once and for all.

I thought the acting in general was appropriate with only very few minor errors. We could clearly understand the emotions of many of the characters at intense moments. However, without spoiling anything, I must say that some of the acting didn't seem real enough. I thought the woman in black was involved in the story this time fairly well, as she was introduced pretty smoothly. The atmosphere at points was very dark and eerie, especially since the film revolves around the war period, and the house guests had to go down to the darkest basements and bunkers for protection. Well, maybe they weren't that safe after all! The idea of the woman in black teaching the children to commit suicide still exists in this film, and I must say that some of the scenes are disturbing merely due to the fact they are very young children. The jump scares on one hand are very scary, and they certainly caused me to be startled, although they weren't perfect.

There is no improvement in the film in comparison to the first one in my opinion which was a let down to me because I had high hopes for this one. I also believe that it was fairly slow at the start which was problematic for me although some of you may prefer it if you like a bit of war background. Although I complimented the scares, on the other hand a lot of them are predictable at times which was unfortunate. The acting was a little rusty on occasions too and some of it just felt unrealistic overall.

Overall, this film is generally successful in that it contained appropriate horror features and a straightforward plot. I was hoping for this film to be better than the first film which I thought was decent. Therefore I would only recommend you guys to go and see this film if you enjoyed the first one. It's pretty much the exact same plot in trying to get rid of the woman in black's presence. On the whole, it's a very good 'haunted house' horror.

Overall Rating - 6.1/10