Movie Review: The Woman in Black 2

Sequels I never expect much from.  I saw the first movie more because I had seen the stage play than the fact that Dan Rad was in it (Daniel Radcliffe).  The premise seems simple enough, but SPOILER if you’re not familiar: the woman in black is a ghost haunting an old house, and wants to steal children away so they can be with her after the child she had raised was taken from her.  This story was heavy with backstory that seemed needless.  I appreciate the attempt, but there was just a sudden plot, even though there were leading flashbacks. 

A horror movie, to me, should have a simple premise, to scare the audience, to make the audience feel secure, then snatch that safety away with reckless abandon.  The trouble with sequels is that there can be no snatching because you already know what is to come, something scary.  This movie followed the tried and true premise of all horror movies and in that vein, it failed what was a promising take on an opening movie that fell flat.  The first Woman in Black movie wasn’t scary at all.  The play, on the other hand, was horrifying.  I thought I was going to be sitting in the guy next to me’s lap if I wasn’t careful.  How a stage play was scarier than two movies still baffles me, but the fact remains, neither movie was scary nor stayed with me, it was just, meh.

The story revolved around the second World War and how kids were being taken away from the city for their own safety, and somehow they ended up in this scary old house.  Of course they did, because, horror movie, right?  The main character was a school teacher who had been forced to give her young child up because she had it out of wedlock and is haunted by this throughout the movie, more so when they have to bring a child who’s parents were killed right before the group left.  There was an actor, Jeremy Irvine , who had a striking resemblance to Tom Brady and this distracted me throughout the movie.  Imagine a British Tom Brady who isn’t married and doesn’t have kids.  Yes, I went to my happy place there, but let’s continue.  The Tom Brady lookalike is a grounded pilot who is falling for our schoolteacher and the two try to convince the headmistress (Mrs. Malfoy) that they need to leave before more children die.  This doesn’t work and the inevitable happens.

For the price I paid, I guess it was okay, but I can’t say this movie had much bite to it.  I had higher expectations than usual just because I hoped they would fix what hadn’t gone right in the first movie.  I know, that optimism I have is misplaced.  Pass if you don’t like horror movies, but if you’re a fan, this is it until February, I think.