Annabelle

 



Director - John R. Leonetti (Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, The Butterfly Effect 2)
Starring - Annabelle Wallis (X-Men: First Class, The Mummy), Ward Horton (The Wolf of Wall Street, Fringe), and Tony Amendola (Castlevania, Green Lantern: Emerald Knights)
Release Date - 2014
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "Before The Conjuring, there was Annabelle"
Format - Bluray (Personal Collection)

Rating (out of 5):

 

     Several years ago I remember seeing a trailer for The Conjuring and thought it looked cool.  My wife, not so much.  She's not a horror fan and it took a lot of begging and pleading but I was able to convince her to go see the movie in theaters.  We went one night and we both fucking loved the movie.  We were not alone.  Many horror pages and groups on social media talked about the film the following weeks and soon the possessed doll, Annabelle, became a horror icon.  It wasn't long before a spin off centered around the supernatural doll was announced.  Soon a trailer was released and I have to say I had no interest in checking it out.  I skipped it but didn't miss The Conjuring 2 when it was released.  With Annabelle Comes Home hitting shelves soon I thought I would finally check out this spin off series.

     The film follows a young married couple who is expecting their first born child.  One night they hear a scream next door and John (Horton) rushes to check on their neighbors while leaving the very pregnant Mia (Wallis) alone.  Mia is then attacked by her neighbors killers who was actually their estranged daughter and boyfriend who are part of a cult.  Her boyfriend stabs Mia while Annabelle, the neighbor's daughter, kills herself in the nursery.  The police kill the boyfriend and Mia is transported to the hospital where the doctor confirms that both her and the baby are doing fine.  Things take dark turn when Mia starts to suspect something sinister is in their home and it's centered around the doll Annabelle was holding when she died.  She removes the doll from the home and soon after the house catches fire forcing Mia to go into labor.  We jump forward sometime and Mia, John, and baby are doing fine but something dark has followed them to their new apartment and the Annabelle dolls reappears.  They seek help from their local church but he is unable to stop the evil forces that must now claim a soul before it will stop.

     The trailer for this one painted a very boring and drab supernatural horror film full of jump scares and a predictable story.  After watching the film I can safely say that is exactly what it is.  The acting in this one is surprisingly great.  The entire cast is awesome and I was surprised by how much I actually enjoyed these characters. The film's leads, Wallis and Horton, are fantastic together and their chemistry is unmatched on screen.  The cast in this is one of the few redeeming qualities.  The story for this one has a few interesting things but the movie mostly falls apart when it gets going.  I really enjoyed the cult angle of this and how the doll becomes possessed.  This was very interesting and works for the time period the film takes place.  Sadly, this is underutilized and the movie focuses way too much time on the family being haunted.  This runs it's course fairly early in the film which makes it a chore to finish.  The movie is a painfully slow moving one with a predictable story and repetitive jump scares.  Finally, this one doesn't shy away from the blood.  We get plenty of it but the body count is not that high.  The practical effects are great for what we get but the CGI is extremely noticeable.  Overall, Annabelle had some big shoes to fill and it couldn't do the job.  The movie has some interesting ideas but fails to pull it all together for something fun.  Skip it.