First Casting News For The Woman In Black: Angel Of Death

The Woman In Black was one of the better scary-book-to-scary-film adaptations I have had the pleasure of seeing. I expected nothing less from Hammer Studios, after all. Now the sequel – handily entitled The Woman In Black: Angel Of Death, so we do not get confused – is getting all set to start filming, with the first proper round of casting news as well as a plot synopsis.

It ain’t bad, either. The story of The Woman In Black: Angel Of Death goes that the Eel Marsh House from the first film has been converted to a military mental hospital in World War II (great idea, guys). Phoebe Fox (best known for the TV series Switch) will play the lovely young nurse Eve, tasked with helping the disturbed young soldiers recover. This might be problematic given the presence of the original ghostie, the Woman in Black, who … does not like people very much. One of those young men is Jeremy Irvine (War Horse), who will presumably be one of the soldiers that survives a good bit of the film.

So The Woman In Black: Angel Of Death seems to be shaping up nicely. This film has certainly been structured around semi-newcomers, which can be a good thing. Jeremy Irvine is better-known than Fox because of War Horse; he will also be showing up later this year in The Railway Man opposite Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman. But neither of these actors are the calibre of star that Daniel Radcliffe was when he took on the Woman in Black the first time. Director Tom Harper (replacing James Watkins from the first one) is likewise only slightly known.

In the end, the question will be if lightning can strike in the same place twice. The Woman In Black was just a good, old-fashioned haunted house film based on an excellent book (and stage play) with the backing of one of the more notorious horror studios in Britain.  If The Woman In Black: Angel Of Death can pull off the same combination of storytelling and scares, I will certainly be in the front row.  Will you?