Annabelle (movie)

Synopsis: A couple begin to experience terrifying supernatural occurrences involving a vintage doll shortly after their home is invaded by satanic cultists.

Director: John R. Leonetti

Writer: Gary Dauberman

Cast:

• Annabelle Wallis as Mia Gordon

• Ward Horton as John Gordon

• Alfre Woodard as Evelyn

• Eric Ladin as Detective Clarkin

• Brian Howe as Pete Higgins

• Tony Amendola as Father Perez

Rotten Tomatoes Score:

Metacritic Score:

Synopsis: John Form has found the perfect gift for his expectant wife, Mia—a beautiful, rare vintage doll in a pure white wedding dress. But Mia’s delight with Annabelle doesn’t last long. On one horrific night, their home is invaded by members of a satanic cult, who violently attack the couple. Spilled blood and terror are not all they leave behind. The cultists have conjured an entity so malevolent that nothing they did will compare to the sinister conduit to the damned that is Annabelle.

Director: John R. Leonetti

Writer: Gary Dauberman

Cast:

• Annabelle Wallis as Mia Gordon

• Ward Horton as John Gordon

• Alfre Woodard as Evelyn

• Eric Ladin as Detective Clarkin

• Brian Howe as Pete Higgins

• Tony Amendola as Father Perez

• Kerry O'Malley as Sharon Higgins

• Ivar Brogger as Dr. Burgher

• Tree O'Toole as Thin Woman; Annabelle Higgins

• Morganna May as Debbie

• Michelle Romano as Mary

• Christopher Shaw as Fuller

Rotten Tomatoes Score:

Metacritic Score:

In James Wan’s The Conjuring, the lead characters made reference to an occult museum in which various cursed or demonic items were kept, one of which was a dusty and broken vintage doll. This doll is that subject of Annabelle, a prequel/spin-off which details how the doll came to be in its current place of rest. Doting husband John (Ward Horton) surprises his pregnant wife Mia (Annabelle Wallis) with the gift of the doll in question. After their home is invaded and their neighbours are murdered by satanic cultists, the couple begin to experience a string of supernatural occurrences revolving around the doll.

While directed by John Leonetti (who gave us such cinematic gems as Mortal Kombat: Annihilation), James Wan is still clearly the driving force behind the movie, and this is painfully obvious to anyone who has seen Insidious, The Conjuring, or even Dead Silence (a movie about possessed puppets) because it’s just more of the same. You could easily play bingo with the number of horror tropes that pop up throughout the film: possessed child’s toy? Check. Satanic cults? Check. Traumatised parents? Check. And so on and so forth.

In the initial twenty minutes or so there is at least some effort to develop the leads and give the audience something to relate to, but the roles are so blandly acted that there’s very little to praise about them. At the very least they aren’t as hatefully idiotic as most characters in horror movies: that is to say, they don’t deliberately aggravate the un-dead or stride purposefully into a dark forest at night. Even Tony Amendola as the Exorcist-esque priest seems rather bored by the proceedings, even in scenes of intense horror.

The scares are the same old things we’ve seen before, and for a film that markets itself as a horror movie, there are criminally long gaps between scares and the exact number of times the doll itself does anything remotely creepy can be counted on one finger. Jump scares have now become an inevitable part of modern horror and that’s a sign of how lazy the mainstream genre pieces have become. Simply poking someone with a sharp stick isn’t good enough anymore, audiences (even those who don’t ‘like’ horror movies) won’t stand for it anymore because it’s just. not. scary. Although, if it wasn’t for the jump scares, I’d have dozed off within the first half an hour.

Of course once I realised I wasn’t going to be scared my mind started noticing all the other small things going on: the methods of the satanic cult members make no sense, the apparitions don’t really do anything but make some loud noises and stand around in the dark and there’s a very lazy shoe-horning of the Manson murders to try and draw some kind of parallel. Even the cinematography is annoying, an otherwise realistic frame drenched in a drab grey colour filter – another staple of Wan’s work – that just doesn’t need to be there.

Despite being saddled with a producer role, James Wan has his fingerprints all over Annabelle. Any initial promise demonstrated has long since been squandered and the film as a whole is proof that the tired tropes and clichés tied to his work have not only run out of steam but have been abandoned on the rails and left to rust.

1 star

This review and others can be read here:

Just curious about the title question, I’ve watched bloopers on youtube and interviews and then it hit me that there’s no interview or any moment really with these two together. Is there a reason for that?