Annabelle: Creation

  • 02 Sep - 08 Sep, 2017
  • Farheen Jawaid
  • Reviews

If you thought that the doll in The Conjuring and Annabelle was creepy, this movie will make it clear why Ed and Lorraine Warren – paranormal investigator husband and wife of this film series – have handled this doll with caution. My advice is to move that doll to where no one can get to it, as a precautionary measure. It is also safe to assume that this movie will frighten the logic out of you.

Annabelle: Creation is Annabelle’s prequel. It’s about when the doll was made, how a demon came to reside in it and brought horror to the family. The film ties into Annabelle and The Conjuring. The story begins in 1943. An older couple, Samuel (Anthony LaPaglia) and Ester Mullins (Miranda Otto), have a seven-year-old daughter named Annabelle (Samara Lee) who they cherish, as they had her after a long wait. But tragedy soon hits them, and Annabelle dies in an accident. Jump to 1955, when the Mullins decide to help out the church and take in homeless girls with a Sister Charlotte (Stephanie Sigman) to look after them. The girls are a cheerful lot. Two, in particular, stand out from the crowd are best friends: Janice (Talitha Bateman) and Linda (Lulu Wilson). Janice suffers from polio, walks with crutches, but is a happy soul.

After the girls settle in, it is made clear that the Mullins are a sad lot. Mrs. Mullins is bedridden after an accident and Mr. Mullins doesn’t talk much. Mean ambiences get right to work from the very first night, when Janice gets inquisitive of the room that is barred for everyone. So, as Janice gets closer to the room, Annabelle starts appearing with no good intentions. The movie is of horror fun: right from the get-go there are creeping and jump scares – but not the cheap, fake kind. Here it’s the real thing doing all the frightening. When the jolts start coming, they come relentlessly.

James Wan – the director and producer of both, Conjuring’s as well as Insidious movies, and the producer of Annabelle – is consistent in his depiction of demonic entities, not ghosts, as unexplained evils. David F. Sandberg, the film’s director, impresses in Annabelle: Creation. His debut film Lights Out was a hit and a miss, but this film is a frightener that won’t let you take a breather. 

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