Annabelle: Creation
Rating: 4/5
By: Nathaniel Simpson
Horror movie sequels are known for not being very good at all, and perhaps shouldn't even exist to follow the original. There have been numerous cases of this, which then spawns into numerous sequels with them getting worse and worse. With a film like Annabelle being so bad, it was worrisome when they announced a sequel to the movie about the creepy doll. Thankfully however, this is one of the very few cases where the horror sequel is loads better than the movie before it, utilizing a haunted house story that both terrifies and entertains the audience.
The movie takes place twelve years before the events of the first Annabelle film, and it revolves around a group of female orphans who are now being brought in by the Mullins family (Anthony LaPaglia, Miranda Otto) after they lose their orphanage. The family is struggling with the loss of their daughter Annabelle, which happened twelve years before the arrival of the girls from the orphanage. When one of the girls, Janice (Talitha Bateman), who is disabled due to polio, discovers a doll that was Annabelle's, it releases a demon that terrorizes the orphanage girls, leaving dead bodies in its wake.
Unlike the first film, this movie is actually quite scary and thrilling. Director David F. Sandberg takes a note out of James Wan's book by using atmospherical horror aspects and different filmmaking techniques, such as cinematography, lighting, sound effects, and more, to build the tension and terror in the audience. This is why jumpscares work in great horror films, and if there isn't any tension in the audience, it's not going to work.
One thing I do want to point out is that this is perhaps the only film in the franchise to totally utilize Annabelle. Like I mentioned in the review for the first one, it seemed like her character was put on the back burner a lot, and felt like an afterthought more than anything. Here, however, she is front and center and occupies a lot of the screen time. This demon is being projected by the doll, and really takes center stage as the main antagonist of the movie. This is what I was looking for in the first movie, and never received; I'm happy they learned from their mistakes for the second film.
A major aspect of why it works too is by the film using children as the main protagonists. Sandberg is able to allow the viewer to relate to the girls in this film, and therefore these childhood fears of monsters and the dark are heightened from beginning to end. When I watched it, I was sacred of what was behind the corner and felt my heart start to beat out of my chest at certain scenes. There is one scene in particular, where Janice is being chased by one of the demonic spirits. She has to use the stair climber as she cannot walk up the stairs due to her disability, and if you know anything about one of these devices, they don't go very fast. Sandberg is able to capture the essence of terror and the sense or urgency in this scene, and it all works so well together.
The ensemble cast is all great together, especially Bateman and Lulu Wilson, who plays Linda. They are the basis of the best friend trope for a movie like this, and I think each girl does a fantastic job embodying the role. They both ooze this childhood innocence, which makes some of the elements in this film so much more scary and uncomfortable. Together, they have wonderful chemistry and really work together well. I also thought Otto gave a really creepy and haunting performance, being hidden by half a mask and behind a bed canopy for a majority of the film. They try to bring in some of the other minor characters that were from the orphanage, but they don't really expand on the characters much. They just sort of serve as side characters that have no real backstory or reason for being how they are, which I wish they gave us a little more.
As a whole, while the movie does work really well and feature some great horror elements, there are some parts that drag quite a bit. I think it does take some time to really get into the meaty parts of this film, and the beginning sort of drags at parts. I wish they were able to trim up the beginning and make it more tight and concise, but it seems like they pay off for it towards the end of the film. I also think that some of the scares felt a little cheap and didn't work for me at times, unfortunately.
This is how you do a prequel horror film, and I was very happy that this movie was leagues better than its predecessor. This movie utilized the Annabelle doll in such a great way, and presented such a creepy story that tells the origin of this iconic horror doll. While it's not perfect, I do think it should be held in high regard in terms of the Conjuring franchise, and definitely does deserve more love than it gets.
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