The Woman in Black was an enormous hit for Hammer Films back when it was released in 2012, so it only makes sense that The Woman in Black 2 would be released eventually. The original was a visually appealing, haunting ghost story that was unfortunately dreadfully boring and relied much too heavily on jump scares. The Woman in Black 2, with the new (unnecessary) subtitle Angel of Death, still retains the original’s reliance on jump scares but is a much more involving story that at least manages to keep you activated throughout its run time.

Set roughly 40 years after the original around the London Blitz, The Woman in Black 2 follows a completely new set of characters. Eve Parkins (Phoebe Fox, who looks like a cross between Rose Byrne and Eva Green) is a schoolteacher evacuating her students with Headmistress Hogg (Helen McCrory, aka Draco Malfoy’s mother) to the small town of Crythin Gifford, where they hide out at the home of the titular villainess. As anyone who saw the first movie is likely to know, this is essentially providing a buffet for the child-murdering ghost, because she’s still pissed off at the world and doesn’t want anyone to have a child.

Soon enough, she sets her sights on Edward, a child who was recently orphaned by the war and thus has the most grief to feed off of, and uses him to prey on the other children. Eve catches on pretty quickly and, when she’s not distracted by a boring romantic subplot with war pilot Harry (Jeremy Irvine), begins sleuthing around to figure out just what it is the specter wants.

The Woman is Black 2 is not a bad movie, it’s just mediocre. Part of the issue is that for much of the first half of the film, the characters are trying to find out what the audience already knows from having seen the first film. Luckily, the new cast and time period are a bit refreshing, so it’s not like we’re just watching a remake of the first film; but it doesn’t completely redeem the film for that misstep.

The reliance on jump scares is disappointing, even if it is expected in a PG-13 horror film. Countless times we are put in moments of silence only to have the music suddenly crescendo or a crow hit a window or (and the film foes this a lot) suddenly find ourselves facing the image of the ghost’s screaming face. There were two jump scares that I found particularly effective and not cheap at all and quite shocking (though neither of these scares involved music, which I think makes those scares seem less cheap).

Like I mentioned before, there is a subplot involving Eve’s romance with the pilot. It gets abandoned about halfway through the film but while it is present it bogs the film down. Of course there is also an issue with characters (the headmistress and the air raid warden) not believing Eve about the ghost, even after two (TWO!) children have died. It doesn’t make much sense and the film would have been stronger if the “I should have believed you” moment had happened way earlier (or, you know, if they just would have believed Eve in the first place).

The film does have plenty of things going for it, though. Like the first film, it is beautifully shot and looks gorgeous. There are several shots in the film that I would love to have framed on my wall (or even use as my desktop background). Cinematographer George Steel does an amazing job of emulating the style of the original. I also commend the film (and the original) for being ballsy enough to kill children. The images of their corpses once their bodies are found are suitably disturbing and pushes the PG-13 rating to its limit.

The film is at its best (and creepiest) when it is at its most minimalist. Seeing an image of the woman in black in the corner or in the woods is still a disturbing sight to behold, and a hole in the ceiling is used to great effect in several scenes (especially when a ghost crawls out of it in one instance). If the film used more of those moments, rather than beating us over the head with loud noises it would have been more successful.

The Woman in Black 2 also has what The Woman in Black was sorely lacking: a climax. Where the original film just sort of kept spinning its wheels before its ending, The Woman in Black 2 actually provides a genuine conflict and leads to a satisfying climax and somewhat satisfying conclusion (I have a bit of an issue with the resolution, but I won’t nitpick). It’s sufficiently creepy and the stakes actually feel high since a child is actually in danger, as opposed to the original where they were just trying to figure everything out before Radcliffe’s character’s son to arrived.

All in all, I would call The Woman in Black 2 a (very) minor success for Hammer Films. It is a better film than the original and the pros do (just barely) outweigh the cons. I still don’t really see the point of making this a franchise, but if the final shot of the movie is anything to go by, I’m sure there will be more in the future.