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<blockquote data-quote="Mel O&amp;#039;Drama" data-source="post: 351815" data-attributes="member: 23">The Woman In Black: Angel Of Death (2015)

<img src="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.traileraddict.com%2Fcontent%2Frelativity-media%2Fwoman-black-angel-death.jpg&amp;f=1&amp;nofb=1&amp;ipt=0b2b2ced0141b0133ce3c1769a2e89d4c41eb966ea7d94bc16511321648b025f&amp;ipo=images" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 790px" />

While I haven&#039;t read the book or watched the original screen version, the 2012 adaption with Daniel Radcliffe took me by surprise with how effectively psychologically creepy it was... and with some scares that made me jump on repeat screenings. I think its &quot;12&quot; BBFC rating had lulled me into a false sense of security.

This loose sequel is pretty much more of the same, though without any huge &quot;name&quot; actors. Whether or not this is a good or bad thing depends on your point of view. I think it possibly works in the film&#039;s favour.

First, the good news: the film looks wonderful. It feels nicely gothic and rich in atmosphere with long shadows and drab-but-warm hues. It really is beautifully shot and it looks expensive (I&#039;d feared it may be a bit on the cheap side, being what appears to be an under-the-radar sequel). 

What lets the film down is the casting and lack of attention to period detail in the writing. In both cases, this mainly boils down to expressions and speech patterns which are too contemporary for the 1940s setting, some of which&nbsp; - certainly by the standards of the time - would be viewed as either anachronistic or alien-sounding Americanisms. 

My hackles rose three minutes into the film when a character announced &quot;We&#039;re waiting on Edward Lee&quot; (and no:&nbsp; she didn&#039;t mean they were serving him nibbles, nor that she was standing on his back to pass the time). The film was absolutely littered with these: (&quot;Me too&quot; instead of &quot;So am I&quot;, etc.), but in addition to the &quot;waiting on&quot; example, the two most unforgivable were the lead actress saying &quot;I&#039;m gonna go see..&quot; and several characters using phrases like &quot;I&#039;m so sorry.&quot; or &quot;You are in so much trouble.&quot; as complete sentences, which would have been unheard of at the time and would have appeared to be an unfinished sentence. The young male lead even said &quot;I am so, so sorry&quot; and then just stopped without saying&nbsp; he was sorry about. (it would have been more suitable to say &quot;I&#039;m very sorry&quot;; &quot;I&#039;m most terribly sorry&quot;, or something to that effect).

In terms of delivery, most of the cast seemed to be aiming for contemporary RP which just felt wrong (again, young male lead was the worst offender. He has &quot;Millennial&quot; written all over him and there&#039;s no concession at all on his part to the period setting). They spoke in fairly neutral accents rather than regional, but (as contemporary RP is wont to do) dropped &quot;t&quot;s from the ends of words, or used a mid-Atlantic &quot;d&quot; sound instead of a &quot;t&quot; so words like &quot;right&quot; and &quot;getting&quot; became &quot;rye&quot; and &quot;gedding&quot;. Perfectly acceptable by 2015 standards (indeed, it seems to be the dominant form) but this would surely have sounded very strange back in the Forties. 

As far as the film itself goes: I was expecting to be either scared or creeped out, but I wasn&#039;t. The jump scares felt too obvious and sledgehammer and the story was so thin that it was really only the beautiful cinematography and the broody, atmospheric scenes where nothing happened (of which there were many) that made it anything other than a complete waste of time. </blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mel O'Drama, post: 351815, member: 23"] [CENTER][B][SIZE=6]The Woman In Black: Angel Of Death[/SIZE][/B] (2015) [IMG width="790px"]https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.traileraddict.com%2Fcontent%2Frelativity-media%2Fwoman-black-angel-death.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=0b2b2ced0141b0133ce3c1769a2e89d4c41eb966ea7d94bc16511321648b025f&ipo=images[/IMG] While I haven't read the book or watched the original screen version, the 2012 adaption with Daniel Radcliffe took me by surprise with how effectively psychologically creepy it was... and with some scares that made me jump on repeat screenings. I think its "12" BBFC rating had lulled me into a false sense of security. This loose sequel is pretty much more of the same, though without any huge "name" actors. Whether or not this is a good or bad thing depends on your point of view. I think it possibly works in the film's favour. First, the good news: the film looks wonderful. It feels nicely gothic and rich in atmosphere with long shadows and drab-but-warm hues. It really is beautifully shot and it looks expensive (I'd feared it may be a bit on the cheap side, being what appears to be an under-the-radar sequel). What lets the film down is the casting and lack of attention to period detail in the writing. In both cases, this mainly boils down to expressions and speech patterns which are too contemporary for the 1940s setting, some of which - certainly by the standards of the time - would be viewed as either anachronistic or alien-sounding Americanisms. My hackles rose three minutes into the film when a character announced "We're waiting [I]on[/I] Edward Lee" (and no: she didn't mean they were serving him nibbles, nor that she was standing on his back to pass the time). The film was absolutely littered with these: ("Me too" instead of "So am I", etc.), but in addition to the "waiting on" example, the two most unforgivable were the lead actress saying "I'm gonna go see.." and several characters using phrases like "I'm so sorry." or "You are in so much trouble." as complete sentences, which would have been unheard of at the time and would have appeared to be an unfinished sentence. The young male lead even said "I am so, so sorry" and then just stopped without saying he was sorry about. (it would have been more suitable to say "I'm very sorry"; "I'm most terribly sorry", or something to that effect). In terms of delivery, most of the cast seemed to be aiming for contemporary RP which just felt wrong (again, young male lead was the worst offender. He has "Millennial" written all over him and there's no concession at all on his part to the period setting). They spoke in fairly neutral accents rather than regional, but (as contemporary RP is wont to do) dropped "t"s from the ends of words, or used a mid-Atlantic "d" sound instead of a "t" so words like "right" and "getting" became "rye" and "gedding". Perfectly acceptable by 2015 standards (indeed, it seems to be the dominant form) but this would surely have sounded very strange back in the Forties. As far as the film itself goes: I was expecting to be either scared or creeped out, but I wasn't. The jump scares felt too obvious and sledgehammer and the story was so thin that it was really only the beautiful cinematography and the broody, atmospheric scenes where nothing happened (of which there were many) that made it anything other than a complete waste of time. [/CENTER] [/QUOTE]

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