Film Review: THE WOMAN IN BLACK 2: ANGEL OF DEATH (2014)

Due to the immense success of the original The Woman in Black (2012) it was inevitable that a sequel would be attempted despite the finality of the film and the fact that it was based upon a bestselling book.  So now we have The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death (2014) which takes place 40 years after the original film and has a whole new cast and story. 

It’s the middle of WWII and London has been turned into a wasteland for head mistress Jean Hogg, her assistant Eve Parkins (Helen McCroy and Phoebe Fox, respectfully) and the children they are responsible for.  Now they have been charged with transporting their group of orphans & children to the Eel Marsh House where they believe it will be safe from the devastation of war.  It’s not long before the Woman in Black’s presence is felt.  Eve starts to suffer from terrifying nightmares and mysterious things start to happen to the children especially when they start to die from mysterious circumstances.  Eve believes that she has to get all the children away from the Eel Marsh House but where can you go when the wages of war are all around you?

Written by Jon Croker and directed by Tom Harper the film has a dark and gothic atmosphere as befitting a film from Hammer Studios and is extremely well done.  Like its predecessor it is a film that’s partial lost in an older time and no matter how good it is, without the name of a Daniel Radcliffe the film was never destined to do very well at the Box Office.  It plays better on the small screen where I’m sure it will finally find its audience as it is a well done ghost story that’s for fans of such films as The Others (2001) or The Devil’s Backbone (2001).

“Rants & Ravings About Horror” - Week 3

Week 3: “The Horror Franchise”

There is no other genre that relies as heavily on the franchise and/or sequel like horror films do.  The history of the genre is littered with franchises such as Universal Studios original Dracula, The Wolfman, and The Mummy.   Sequels carried on the studio’s legacy with the characters and gave audiences more adventures and stories of their favorite monsters.  When Hammer Studios took up the mantle in the ‘60s and ‘70s they crafted new and colorful stories with these same monsters whetting the appetites of eager horror fans.  Then of course all bets were off in the ‘80s and ‘90s as the slasher boom became the poster-child for franchise as numerous horror franchises were born and transformed the way in which studios marketed and sold horror films which continues (unfortunately) to this day.

I mention this because the horror franchise is one of the reasons most of us love horror or were first introduced to it.  One of my earliest obsessions was the Halloween franchise.  I was a huge Michael Myers fan from the beginning and growing up I watched all the films religiously every year (which is one of the reasons why I can no longer watch the films).  My other favorite was the Child’s Play films, which I still watch to this day.  It’s been wenty-five years and the franchise is still going strong mainly because writer (and now director) Don Mancini has been there since the beginning allowing the franchise to change and evolve with each new generation.   

Other more important franchises include A Nightmare on Elm Street, Resident Evil, Friday the 13^th, Hellraiser, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Scream, the Hannibal Lector films, Saw, The Evil Dead, Final Destination, Aliens, Predator, Paranormal Activity, Jaws, Poltergeist, The Amityville Horror, The Omen, The Exorcist, Puppet Masters, Ginger Snaps, Subspecies, Cube, Hatchet, Feast, The Grudge, Psycho, Phantasm, V/H/S, Candyman, The Prophecy, and Return of the Living Dead, to name a small few.  The less important or more cult franchises include Basket Case, Prom Night, The Howling, Critters, Ghoulies, The Re-Animator, House, Creepshow, Pumpkinhead, The Crow, The Mangler, Children of the Corn, Watchers, Mirror, Mirror, The Stepford Wives, Hostel, Cabin Fever,  Leprechaun, and Silent Night, Deadly Night, to name a few (too).  In addition to these, there are the failed franchises which only made it to a second film such as C.H.U.D., 976-Evil, 30 Days of Night, The Gate, Alligator, the first remake of King Kong films, The Gate, Demons, The Collector/The Collection, Pet Semetary, Salem’s Lot, Trilogy of Terror, The Last Exorcism, Piranha, Mirrors, Willard/Ben, An American Werewolf in London/Paris, The Descent, Witchboard,  Night of the Demons, Fright Night (both original and remakes), American Psycho, Rosemary’s Baby, The Blair Witch Project, The Ring (although a new sequel is in pre-pre-production), and Carrie, to name a few.

This may be a lot of horror franchises but this is still just a small sampling.  The reason why so many sequels were produced (many more ill-conceived) is because horror films have always been big business for studios - low cost and big profits.  Even though many of the sequels went straight to video (video was booming in the ‘80s and ‘90s and also contributed to the proliferation of the horror franchise) there were always franchises that remained on the big screen and endured because audiences couldn’t get enough of them no matter how mundane and repetitive the sequels got.  

Films that killed franchises or “jumped the shark” were plentiful and took the franchise into ludicrous territory alienating even die-hard fans.  Films like Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, Return of Texas Chainsaw Massacre (aka Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation), C.H.U.D. 2: Bud for C.H.U.D., The Stepford Husbands, Hellraiser: Revelations, Jaws: The Revenge, Candyman: Day of the Dead, The Rage: Carrie 2, Look What Happened to Rosemary’s Baby, Piranha 3DD, King Kong Lives, Critters 4: In Space, Leprechaun: Back 2 the Hood, American Psycho 2, and Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows, to name a few.

The horror film and most importantly the horror fan relish the continuing adventures of their favorite monsters.  It is rare that a franchise hinges on a heroine.  The names Pinhead, Chucky, Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Candyman, Norman Bates, Hannibal Lector, Leatherface, Jigsaw, The Tall Man, Herbert West, Damian, Fred Kruger, and Ghostface are what draw audiences in from one film to the next regardless of the quality of each subsequent film.  I love the Child’s Play films because I’m a fan of Chucky (and I’ve even read the novelizations and comics as well).  I watch the Alien films because I love the aliens and how they change from film to film (and likewise I’ve read many of the books and comics as well).   The villains are the draw for these films as any fan can attest. 

Franchises are an important way for us fans to continue to enjoy some of our most (in)famous icons.  As long as we continue to watch and support these films then studios will continue to produce then.  This is not always a great thing as we’ve come to realize as sequels usually lose their punch and become more sanitized.  Not every film in a franchise can be gold.  Sometimes we have to settle for bronze but isn’t that better than having nothing at all?

Book Review: GHOULS, GIMMICKS, AND GOLD: Horror Films and the American Movie Business, 1953-1968 by Kevin Heffernan

Horror is one of the most vital genres in film as it has influenced and changed the way audiences look at themselves, culture, and the history of film itself.  In Kevin Hefferman’s book Ghouls, Gimmicks, and Gold: Horror Films and the American Movie Business, 1953-1968, Hefferman examines the business of horror from ’53 (the beginning of the 3-D cycle of films) to ’68 (the release of George A. Romero’s nihilistic Night of the Living Dead and the birth of adult horror). 

Hefferman breaks up his book in chapters specific to an era of film that not only changed the business of the genre but also made a cultural impact on audiences.  In the opening chapter “Horror in Three Dimensions” he delves into how the success of House of Wax and Creature from the Black Lagoon (among others) altered the business during the first 3-D boom.  In the chapter “The Color of Blood” the success of Hammer Films is examined which added luscious color and sex to the gothic horror film adding new life to a genre that was slowly in a downward spiral.  Hefferman also goes into AIP’s Poe adaptations with Vincent Price (“A Sissified Bela Lugosi”), the impact of grind house and art films (“Grind House or Art House?”), the impact of television on the industry and business (“Television Syndication and the Birth of the ‘Orphans’”), and several others culminating with the release of Night of the Living Dead and how it changed the industry (“Family Monsters and the Urban Matinees”).

Heffernan’s book is not one that recycles reviews and critics of any of the films discussed but rather goes into detail on how these films impacted the industry and signaled a shift and change in the way not only audiences but filmmakers saw the industry and genre.  The ‘50s and ‘60s saw such a diverse array of films being released that the reasons for the many shifts has always fascinated and confounded the industry and Heffernan does a great job of breaking it down here (at least in terms of the American movie business). 

The people that will get the most from this book are those who want to know why and how the horror film endured through so many changes in the ‘50s and ‘60s but even the casual horror fan will enjoy Hefferman’s non-academic style which makes everything more accessible to the casual reader (it could have been real easy for a book such as this to become too academic).