Annabelle: Creation DVD Review

Annabelle: Creation may just be the scariest entry in the Conjuring series, and it has little to do with the actual doll. That's right, the scariest so far. Now, I'll be the first to admit, I have a fear of dolls. They creep me out, and from the moment that the Annabelle doll graced the screen in the first Conjuring there was intrigue and unease there. Audiences craved more of this haunted doll. The doll itself without moving or asking people to find it is enough to produce a few shivers, and pair it with a sweet, helpless little girl, its enough to send the scare factor way up.

Former toy maker Sam Mullins (Anthony LaPaglia) and his wife, Esther (Miranda Otto), are happy to welcome a nun and six orphaned girls into their California farmhouse. Years earlier, the couple's 7-year-old daughter Annabelle died in a tragic car accident. Terror soon strikes when one child sneaks into a forbidden room and finds a seemingly innocent doll that appears to have a life of its own.

The first Annabelle film wasn't exactly loved, but it did well enough for a second to be made, and this one hit the mark. Director David F. Sandberg sets a dark menacing tone almost from the beginning of this prequel to the Annabelle tale. We're introduced to a happy hopeful couple's whose life is destroyed as their precious daughter dies inches from them as they're helpless to save her. The film starts brightly, and as the demonic presence becomes greater it slips into shadowy tones. The feeling of foreboding is amped up as the room is darkened, when the fight or flight factor becomes highest.

While the story does fall into a few of the normal horror movie cliches, from locked forbidden rooms, to demonic puppeteers, it also does deliver more than a few scares. Janice's polio induced crippling, makes the terror more, as she's unable to get away from the thing chasing her, unlike the other able bodied girls. While the gore could have definitely been higher, since the survival of the cast isn't needed since they aren't in any of the subsequent story, its actually kept to a minimum. And there's a blink and you'll miss it tie-in to the next installment The Nun!

What strays from normal horror movie fare is the acting, it's pretty great. Tabitha Bateman as Janice has to be given kudos on her work. She is the perfect mix of innocence and menace. She sells the terror, and then she inflicts it on the rest of the cast.

What's on the DVD? It's loaded with special features, which are a lot of fun, especially if you're into the world that the Conjuring has set up. There are two short horror films The Coffer and Attic Panic. They're a lot of fun, and you can see their fingerprints all over Annabelle: Creation. There is the normal Director's Commentary and deleted scenes, but the Horror Continues feature is definitely the best one. It delves deeper into the Conjuring World, with a behind the scenes peek.

Annabelle: Creation is easily one of the best scary movies of the year. If you're looking for fear without the gore, this is the flick for you, and its available on DVD now.