Annabelle: Creation Review
R: Horror violence and terror.
Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema
1 Hr and 49 Minutes
Cast: Stephanie Sigman, Lulu Wilson, Talitha Bateman, Anthony LaPaglia, Miranda Otto
INTRO: So upon watching this, I had a rather odd experience. I hate attending movies where my theater is nothing but talkative assholes. It works on some occasions such as ANY GIVEN TYLER PERRY MOVIE, but on other occasions, it pisses me off. So when I'm sitting in the audience alone with vacant seats in my area, a group of teenage Caribbean girls comes in to sit down by me. I went to move because if there’s one thing about Caribbean teenage girls, it's that they’re loud. I sat in another section of the theater and then a group of kids showed up. Of course, I moved once again, and I finally sat at one last section next to two people. During the movie, I heard breathing because it was a teenage couple playing hanky panky.
Twelve years after the tragic death of their little girl, a doll maker and his wife welcome a nun and several girls from a shuttered orphanage into their home. The girls soon become targets for the Dollmaker's possessed creation, Annabelle.
THE GOOD: David F. Sandberg is on a roll right now. With Lights Out being one of the most creative horror films of 2016, it would make sense he gets the job to direct the Annabelle origin film. Sandberg pulls a Mike Flanagan and gives a generic franchise innovative breathes of life with their style and playfulness of horror cliche. Yup, I said Mike Flanagan because this is the Ouija: Origin of Evil of prequel horror movies. With that Ouija movie, you had a director who wanted to have fun with the tropes of horror and overall made it a solidly entertaining time which is the same skill Sandberg infuses into this.
The first Annabelle movie did as many new things like the doll of the same name have the ability to do, which is nothing. For a horror villain that does nothing but stare at you, there are no real terrifying elements with her. We all owned a scary looking doll once. BIG WHOOP. But Sandberg takes the elements of what made Lights Out special which was having a naturally eerie atmosphere. He plays with practical effects and sound but what he takes an immense joy out of which benefits the film the most is darkness. When the lights go out, the tension builds up. There are plenty of set pieces which involves characters messing around with either a scary looking object or a section of the house, and they’re old fashioned fun. It's like a horror movie playground for that is all set up so you can regularly go, “Don’t go in there!”
The cast here does a great job getting terrified. I mean you have Lulu Wilson who was the creepy little girl who stole the show in Ouija: Origin of Evil and here she is the one who is terrorized the most amongst these orphan girls. So in other words, the creepy has become the creeped out! They’re all the cliched type of characters who do nothing but stupid decisions, but they’re all kids, so it's hard to fault them. Kids aren’t perfect, and it clearly shows how mischievous they can be.
THE BAD: I like how films spend the time to build up its third act within its second, but in this, the foreshadowing felt conspicuous. It spends so much time showing off certain objects they might as well wink at the camera and say, “We’re wasting time now, but shits going to get real shit later.” As I said, the majority of these characters are kids who aren’t perfect, but two of them felt like they were absent from having common sense. These orphans individually make some of the dumbest decisions it leads to them getting one step closer to death.
LAST STATEMENT: Creepy, and creatively fun, Annabelle: Creation is a prequel that serves as a strong spinoff thanks to a director that knows horror and loves to have fun with it. David F. Sandberg is proving to be the new James Wan in every step that he makes.
Rating: 3.5/5 | 72%
Super Scene: Janice’s attack.
