The Woman In Black: Angel Of Death
Going down Hill
Release Date: 13 July
2014 | 15 | Blu- ray/ DVD/ download ( 6 July) Director: Tom Harper Cast: Phoebe Fox, Jeremy Irvine, Helen McCrory, Adrian Rawlins, Leanne Best, Ned Dennehy
Hammer Films
was never shy about revisiting ideas, as lists of its Dracula films and Frankenstein movies can attest. So in a way it’s pleasing to see that tradition continued. But this follow- up to the revived brand’s adaptation of Susan Hill’s haunted house novella has no pressing reason to exist.
Faithfulness isn’t a problem; Hill herself suggested directions in which the story could go next. We return to Eel Marsh House circa 1940, as it becomes home to a party of evacuated children. Soon teacher Eve ( Phoebe Fox) has awakened the vengeful spirit, and the “accidental” deaths start stacking up.
The period setting is skilfully presented, the fog- shrouded locations are atmospheric, and there are moments of gothic beauty – like a sequence where Eve frantically chases the titular wraith through a tangled wood. Fox is also rather good in the central role, particularly when interacting with Jeremy Irvine’s handsome pilot.
This romantic dimension is more interesting than the supernatural one, which, with its bumps in the night, creaky doors and sudden jolts all feels a tad too familiar – doubly so if you’ve seen the 2012 film.
A deleted scene provides an additional shock as a lightbulb explodes. Gasp! There’s also a Making Of and five short featurettes. Ian Berriman Susan Hill believes in ghosts: “there are too many incidents and places that have a dreadful feeling about them, a sense of evil.”