THE WOMAN IN BLACK: ANGEL OF DEATH
Tom Harper director
Seeing as the first Woman In Black movie was such a success, is there a certain sense of pressure here?
Big question. One of the things I like about filming is you take the pressure off yourself slightly because you don’t have time to analyse things or worry. I’m sure by the time January rolls around, though, it will be different…
Seeing as the screenplay is co- written by Susan Hill, the film presumably doesn’t have much of a hard time conjuring scares?
Definitely! We talked about creating a mood all the way through, so that people are on the edge of the seat already when the scare comes. If you’re going to achieve that atmosphere where people have dread, where they fear for characters, then you give yourself a much better chance of something being really scary.
So, is that a continuation of the first Woman In Black’s intimate feel, or is it grander?
First and foremost, I wanted to have characters that you empathise with and fear for. And because of the nature of the story, you’re scared, and you have the jumps and all the rest of it. But for me, you can’t have one without the other – it always comes back to character and story. And that’s true of all my favourite horror films, from Let The Right
One In to The Shining.
You work with a lot of children on this. Is it challenging to get good scares out of them?
Sometimes it’s helpful to put all the lights out and do a rehearsal in the dark – that’s proven quite useful. I also did a brilliant practical joke too. I took the boy who plays Edward up the stairs and put a cloak over my head before leaping out. I expect a comeuppance...