2. The Woman In Black: The Angel Of Death (2014)
James Watkins adaptation of Susan Hills 1983 horror novella The Woman In Black was traditional to a fault, a vintage ghost story that relied not on blood and gore, but mystery and suspense. Fresh out of Hogwarts, Daniel Radcliffe got to work on shaking off his type-cast by appearing as young widower Arthur Kipps. The London lawyer is sent to a remote countryside village on a job, though his poking around in the old Eel Marsh House sets the villagers, and the audience on edge. Sadly, Angel Of Death lacked the superbly paced tension of the first film. Set 40 years after Kipps visited Eel Marsh, the sequel follows a group of orphaned children forced to move in after War makes London unsafe and, sure enough, they begin to mysteriously disappear. Director Tom Harper has enough horror know-how to make the audience jump on cue, but the sparse script and dull dialogue certainly lesson their impact. The writers had a ready-made story to work with if they had chosen to go down the prequel path instead of creating a host of new characters that failed to live long on-screen or in the memory. Jennet Humfrye was a malevolent presence in the seaside town of Crythin Gifford long before Kipps showed up on her doorstep, and the story of how she became the Woman in Black certainly could have been explored in more depth. Instead of a terrifyingly predictable sequel, the filmmakers should have kept us guessing and given the title of house terror to Jennet Humfrye's sister in life, Alice Drablow. Alice was the real horror in the story, declaring her sibling mentally unstable and adopting her child against her will. Seeing the whole story from Jennet's point of view would have been a bold curve-ball that could have given the series a new tilt while keeping it creepy.