While being treated at an asylum, Jennet Humfrye (Leanne Best) learned that her son—taken away from her at birth and raised by her sister—tragically drowned in the British marshlands. His body was not recovered until nearly four decades later, in the 1920s, but by then the damage had been done. Vowing to never forgive for the loss of her child, the devastated Jennet hung herself inside the remote Eel Marsh House estate. Although her body died, her spirit has refused to rest, taking the lives of any children she can latch onto in the nearby town of Crythin Gifford. "The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death" does little to further the vengeful Jennet's backstory or mythos, thus becoming a been-there-done-that-better shadow of 2012's spookier, tenser "The Woman in Black." Directed by Tom Harper and written by Jon Croker (based on a story by Susan Hill) with an over-reliance on cheap jolts, this distaff sequel excels in fog-soaked atmosphere, but stumbles with its repetitive storytelling and stilted pacing.
The year is 1941. During the height of World War II, sympathetic schoolteacher Eve Parkins (Phoebe Fox) and rigid headmistress Jean Hogg (Helen McCrory) escape the London Blitz with a group of children they hope to keep safe from the bombing attacks on their homeland. Seeking shelter at the desolate, long-abandoned Eel Marsh House, Eve and Jean quickly go about attempting to restore as much normalcy as they can to their charges' uprooted lives. The mansion is dank and musty, but appears to be harmless until Eve happens upon a mysterious woman roaming the property. When one of the children dies in what appears to be a freak accident, she becomes all the more convinced that there is an evil lurking about them, one that preys on their fears and will not rest until they are all dead.
See Dustin Putman, TheFilmFile.com. for full review
