Review by Dustin Hall
If there’s one thing that you can take away from Annabelle, it’s that people are effing terrified of dolls. This follow-up/prequel to James Wan’s The Conjuring last year was able to illicit groans and shudders of disgust from its audience every time a doll came onto the screen, whether it was doing something or not (usually not). If anything, go see Annabelle for a truly entertaining series of audience reactions.
Before going into this, lets just make clear that I’m not really a fan of James Wan’s previous horror flicks. While I liked The Conjuring okay, the Insidious movies always struck me as more ridiculous and funny than frightening, bogged down in plot contrivances, cheap jump scares and poor acting. As soon as that Tiny Tim song starts playing, my brain checks out. Annabelle, despite not being directed by Wan, has all of his signature moves and problems carried over by cinematographer-come-director John Leonetti, complete with an extremely predictable, by the numbers plot.
That doll… just the notion that anyone would ever keep this horrifying, bloodied, dirtied, hideous thing in their home is incredulous.
That said, though, the movie does have some wonderful highlights that made the experience worth the visit. The opening of the film, a plot set-up revolving around a Manson Family-like death cult, is quick and intense. After that the movie plods along slowly, using fake-out scares all over, but it does finally build into a fantastic haunted chase up from the basement of the apartment complex, and a couple of ghostly reveals that leave real chills with their audience. A few moments are truly inspired, and use the cinematographer’s visual realization of terror to the highest degree. The cast does a pretty good job selling the 70’s period of the film, as well as their terror.
The real failing of this film, though, is its lack of the Warren characters. Ed and Loraine, the heroes of The Conjuring, don’t appear here, despite the heavy marketing as a prequel. The Warrens are very controversial figures in horror history, the realm of ghost hunting in particular, but it has to be said that it was their presence and their informed point of view that made The Conjuring really interesting. Without the paranormal investigation, and the history of their museum, Annabelle just becomes another standard, run of the mill ghost story. And to boot, this story isn’t even based on the ‘true’ story of Annabelle as reported by the Warrens and countless paranormal websites. Was the truth, by comparison, too bland to be used on film? I suppose, knowing from The Conjuring that the two girls the Warrens save from Annabelle survive their encounter, the suspense just wasn’t there anymore.
These weaknesses can’t be ignored, and because of them, I can’t say that Annabelle is a great movie. But it does have some strengths, enough to be a bit above the curve of the average horror film these days, and if you’re one of those folks who has pretty much never seen a ghost movie before, you’ll probably be surprised by the direction it heads. Either way, if you want to see just how ooky people get when they see pictures of dolls, sentient or not, then this one’s for you.
Annabelle is in US cinemas now and arrives in the UK on 10th October, from New Line Cinema.