The Escapee 2: The Woman in Black (2024)

The Escapee 2: The Woman in Black

Full confession: I never watched The Woman in Black before seeing the sequel. We all have those movies that we meant to check out but never got around to, and this was one of mine. Thankfully, the first Daniel Radcliffe-led film isn’t a mandatory prerequisite. However, after seeing The Woman in Black 2, any hope I had left for it was quickly killed.

So far as I can tell, the only links between The Woman in Black and its sequel are the house and the title ghost who haunts it. In the former, a recently widowed lawyer (Radcliffe) comes to the house to settle affairs of the deceased. In the latter, we meet Eve (Phoebe Fox), a young caretaker of a group of children 40 years later.

Because of “The Blitz,” Nazi aerial bombings against London during WWII, her headmistress escorts them to a remote location for safety, as their parents (for various reasons) cannot leave the city. Among them is Edward (Oaklee Pendergast), whose silence masks his pain over his parents’ death by most recent attack. Eve’s instinct is to nurture him; however, the headmistress is cold and demands strength from the boy.

During their long train ride there, Eve encounters a handsome pilot who just so happens to be stationed where she’s heading towards. They soon arrive at Eel Marsh House and here’s where things finally pick up. From the look if it alone you know some ghostly shenanigans are about go down; there’s barely any electricity; structure is falling apart; fog skulks around grounds; cross jutting out from water marks haunting grave (of Nathaniel from first film). Unfortunately for Eve though she’s told this is only place available they’re forced make best of it until ghost takes shine Edward starts tormenting her kids.

Jump scares are normally my thing in fact, I live for them. But when that’s all a film has in its arsenal of scare tactics (like The Woman in Black 2), it feels lazy. Nothing could be lazier or as uncreative as last year’s Ouija, but I still found myself wanting scream “Stop jumping out at me!” at The Woman In Black 2 the same way I would chastise an annoying child with too much energy to spare.

What remains if you take that away? A story of a ghost who is using Eve as a vessel for her anger at losing her child. It turns out she chose Eve because of what Eve herself calls “letting him go.” Him being who? Well, when Eve was younger, she had a kid that was taken away because of her age. She fought to see the baby but eventually gave up after years of searching. Sorry, Woman in Black, but I don’t think that’s reason enough to ruin this woman’s freaking life. If anything, considering why the ghost is haunting, we should feel bad for Eve and maybe attack the cold-hearted headmistress instead.

You know, at first I thought that this whole thing would have more to do with Eve’s gentleman caller especially since there’s one moment where it seems like he might be about to have a panic attack as he rides away from the house and stops just beyond Nathaniel’s grave marker but nope! His reasoning ends up being nowhere near as clever as I bet you were thinking just now. In fact, his only function in this movie appears to be throwing some male eye candy into the mix before swooping in and saving the day once or twice.

The story probably could’ve benefited from cutting him out completely because The Woman in Black 2 started and ended with Eve’s motherly relationship with Edward (and how she fails him thanks to the wedge driven between them by a certain ghost), but instead all we got was muddled emotions and a lackluster climax.

Nevertheless! The Woman in Black 2 isn’t the worst horror movie you could spend your time on. It lures you in easily with its beautiful gothic settings and British fashion staples that deserve so much better than they’re getting here not to mention those jump scares work like they’re supposed to although sometimes these visuals are almost too shadowed; half the time you can’t even see what’s supposed to be making you tremble.

I’ll probably go back and watch the first movie one of these days. But I don’t think I’ll be in any hurry thanks to this one.

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