The Woman in Black: Angel of Death

Based on a story outline by Susan Hill, author of the original novel, this sequel is set four decades after events in the 2011 Hammer blockbuster. A group of schoolchildren and their troubled teacher (Phoebe Fox) are evacuated from Blitz-era London to the now derelict Eel Marsh House, where their presence awakens its spectral inhabitant. The ghostly myth is plausibly extended, as the Woman's fate becomes entwined with that of Fox, mysterious pilot Jeremy Irvine and young haunted pupil Oaklee Pendergast. While less theatrical than the first outing, with a premium placed on eeriness and foreboding, the film from director Tom Harper (The Scouting Book for Boys) relies heavily on the creepy potency of the watery causeway, misty doom-laden visuals and silhouettes of the Woman for the developing sense of dread, only calling upon familiar jolts and sudden noises for the required scares. The dénouement is unexpected and satisfying, while the peril provided by the Second World War backdrop cleverly matches the supernatural suspense.