Ed's Review Dot Com

Alliance Films, Alliance Films, Da Vinci Media Ventures, Hammer Films,

Phoebe Fox, Jeremy Irvine, Helen McCrory, Oaklee Pendergast

Forty Years have passed since Arthur made his trip up to Eels Marsh Manor to investigate the financial matters of a deceased widow and the house has been standing empty. The town is all boarded up and everyone’s gone. Now World War II has broken out and the nightly bombing had everyone terrified. The citizens of London send their children off to live in the country where they were safer to protect them. But the orphans who were left still suffered, and there were no families left to take them in. A pair of teachers, stately and very strict Jean Hogg (Helen McCrory) and young and inspired Eve Parkins (Phoebe Fox) have taken their students to a far away country home to be safe from the Nazis. But the only place open to them is abandoned Eel Marsh Manor and it’s not a very friendly place for them. Run down and dilapidated and left alone with only an occasional visitor, pilot Harry Burnstow (Jeremy Irvine) who is mostly interested in Eve, they soon find the place is still very actively haunted by the same Woman in Black who terrorized Arthur years ago. Anxious to get out, but with nowhere to go, Eve tries to protect the children and search for the cause of the haunting to make it stop before children start to die or disappear.

Three years ago in 2012 I raved about the original “Woman in Black” which featured Daniel Radcliffe. I also raved about Hammer Films and the top notch old fashioned creepy horror that they have delivered all my life. I was worried about this sequel because there were no huge box office draw stars like Harry Potter in this one, but I should not have worried. I swear, this film was better than the original! One word of warning though. If you’re not really familiar with the original, see this one first. Many reviewers have dissed this movie because they missed the rich background from the original story that filled this up to the brim with creepy thrills. This is not only the same house, but has pretty much the same furnishings that belong to the previous residents and were left there when Arthur took off at the end of the first one. It’s the same swamp, the same graveyard, and the same, although much worse off, town that was left over from the first. Some things occurred that when you understand and remember, add to the chills in this one. If you know the story of Alice and Jennette, you’ll understand why Jennette is interested in the children.

Now on to the comments about the technical aspects of this horror story. Like the original, the house is truly a character of itself. It’s marked by real goosebumps and feelings of dread, but utilizes the sudden start kind of jumps that keep you constantly on the edge of your seat. The children are done excellently and I could totally buy off on these kids being displaced children from London in 1942. The sets, lighting, props, and everything else are perfectly done. The creepy children’s toys that were left that scared me to death in the first film are all back, and Jennette isn’t done with them yet. The soundtrack is excellent, but unobtrusive as you hear it and it adds to the horror, but doesn’t make you stop and listen to it. The story is fairly simple, but a good horror story doesn’t need a very complex story, and the back story of the history of the manor is plenty to keep us interested. Basically everything hit for me, and I really enjoyed this film, though I must admit I am a fan of classic horror. There are many fans of the new blood and guts films that try to out create each other in unique ways to kill a person. This is not really like that, it’s much slower paced, the deaths are much further apart, and the story is the king. But it builds suspense from start to end. It’s also just a tiny bit over 90 minutes, so it’s not overly long some some films are which is somewhat refreshing. Nothing’s really left out, and it gets to the point rather quickly and starts building the suspense right away. Nothing worse that an movie that drags on too long and doesn’t get to the point. For me, as a fan of old fashioned Hammer style horror, this was nearly perfect. I really liked it and highly recommend it to horror fans.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog