The Woman In Black was based on a bestselling novel that had been turned into a sell-out West End play before it reached our screens. After all that exposure, audiences might have had an inkling of what to expect (some mighty frights, an icy apparition, a trip to the cardiologist the next day) and when to expect it. But Hammer’s sequel, The Woman In Black: Angel of Death, comes with no such preamble (although it does have a Martyn Waites-penned novel) and little warning of what’s in store. Scary and unsettling are the watchwords, as this new clip from the film portends.
All that said, there is plenty of shared DNA between the two films. James Watkins has been succeeded by fellow Brit Tom Harper in the director’s chair, but novelist Susan Hill again brought her imagination to bear helping screenwriter Jon Croker devise the story. That tale picks up again at Eel Marsh House (0% on airbnb), this time in the shadow of World War II as a young schoolteacher (Phoebe Fox) and her headmistress (Helen McCrory) take a gaggle of children off to safety in the country.
Of course, “safety” is relative. Faced with a choice between the vastly malevolent spirit haunting Eel Marsh House and the bombs of the Nazi blitz, you’d probably say, “A couple of your V1s, please Mr. Hitler, and don’t skimp on the incendiaries.” Sure enough, Jennet Humfrye is back, wreaking death and emotional destruction on all who cross her path.
Jeremy Irvine, an RAF man dragged into the fray, will also be exposed to the evils that lurk across that causeway with The Woman In Black: Angel of Death landing on our screens on January 1.