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.
