Annabelle: Creation is a better sequel that improves over the terrible first film but not by much. Director David F. Sandberg does try to create a creepy atmosphere and tone involving dolls. Lets face it, dolls have been a master at creating fear within everyone. Even if they are just standing by as you walk around. The thought of there heads turning towards your direction can be creepy. But this being a supernatural horror movie and the doll Annabelle just creeping as it sits in the background with it continuously disappearing and showing up does make this film quite decent.
The plot is decent. This follow up is a prequel to the first film. It follows a group of orphaned girls moving to an isolated house. Until, one girl Janice (Talitha Bateman) starts noticing some strange supernatural occurrences when she finds Annabelle.
This being a prequel set up to how the Annabelle doll became possessed that eventually followed into The Conjuring film was pretty neat to see how that tied the origin story up. Yes, this horror movie does have a lot of clichés which would make the audience scream at these characters for making stupid decisions yet again. It is starting to become a regular habit with these horror films making characters make the dumb decisions. First, we have Samuel (Anthony LaPaglia) and wife Esther (Miranda Otto) who lost their daughter Annabelle. Later, her spiritual presence ask them for permission to host inside a doll which they grant her too so they can have their daughter with them. Does not take long, until evil finds a way to haunt the doll and affect anyone that is near it. Several years later, an orphaned girl Janice discovers the doll and notices that the demon is around the dolls presence.
I hated the first film for a lot of reasons. This prequel is an improvement with better acting, an okay plot, better characters, and the direction tries for the classic horror set up with its creepy tone. Stephanie Sigman playing the nun to the orphaned girls gave a decent performance. But Lulu Wilson and Talitha Bateman gave great performances as the orphaned girls. Miranda Otto absent for most of the screen time, hidden away in a room cause of some illness was also decent. Even, Anthony LaPaglia was okay as a grunt guy, who decided to host his house for the girls.
The film is slowly set up. Yes, you get some cheap jolts and scares that try to get at you. It is slowly building up in the first hour of the film. It has the occasionally having characters see a creepy doll in the background or its head facing you. The climax is a payoff when everyone is at stake when the girls are trying to escape the house of horrors and appearances of some demonic being chasing them. It does put you on the edge of your seat thrills.
Like most horror films, this one suffers from its typical clichés with its script. A house with several people living in it and a young girl gets chased in the middle of the night and starts screaming and making noise. And everyone is still fast asleep. She even gets tossed towards walls and across a room and no one wakes up. Must be some thick walls in an old house. Also, Janice is in a wheelchair and outside the house with several girls playing in a close distance. And some mysterious figure pushes Janice into a shack. And she is screaming as this is happening and the girls playing does not even notice her.
Annabelle Creation is a fair horror film. May not be better than The Conjuring films. Definitely better than the first film. The acting and creepy direction is good. It does have a slow first hour of the film which can be boring at times. And have its clichés of stupid characters and no one noticing at close distance logical. It could have been a whole lot worse.
I give the film 3 out of 5 stars.
The plot is decent. This follow up is a prequel to the first film. It follows a group of orphaned girls moving to an isolated house. Until, one girl Janice (Talitha Bateman) starts noticing some strange supernatural occurrences when she finds Annabelle.
This being a prequel set up to how the Annabelle doll became possessed that eventually followed into The Conjuring film was pretty neat to see how that tied the origin story up. Yes, this horror movie does have a lot of clichés which would make the audience scream at these characters for making stupid decisions yet again. It is starting to become a regular habit with these horror films making characters make the dumb decisions. First, we have Samuel (Anthony LaPaglia) and wife Esther (Miranda Otto) who lost their daughter Annabelle. Later, her spiritual presence ask them for permission to host inside a doll which they grant her too so they can have their daughter with them. Does not take long, until evil finds a way to haunt the doll and affect anyone that is near it. Several years later, an orphaned girl Janice discovers the doll and notices that the demon is around the dolls presence.
I hated the first film for a lot of reasons. This prequel is an improvement with better acting, an okay plot, better characters, and the direction tries for the classic horror set up with its creepy tone. Stephanie Sigman playing the nun to the orphaned girls gave a decent performance. But Lulu Wilson and Talitha Bateman gave great performances as the orphaned girls. Miranda Otto absent for most of the screen time, hidden away in a room cause of some illness was also decent. Even, Anthony LaPaglia was okay as a grunt guy, who decided to host his house for the girls.
The film is slowly set up. Yes, you get some cheap jolts and scares that try to get at you. It is slowly building up in the first hour of the film. It has the occasionally having characters see a creepy doll in the background or its head facing you. The climax is a payoff when everyone is at stake when the girls are trying to escape the house of horrors and appearances of some demonic being chasing them. It does put you on the edge of your seat thrills.
Like most horror films, this one suffers from its typical clichés with its script. A house with several people living in it and a young girl gets chased in the middle of the night and starts screaming and making noise. And everyone is still fast asleep. She even gets tossed towards walls and across a room and no one wakes up. Must be some thick walls in an old house. Also, Janice is in a wheelchair and outside the house with several girls playing in a close distance. And some mysterious figure pushes Janice into a shack. And she is screaming as this is happening and the girls playing does not even notice her.
Annabelle Creation is a fair horror film. May not be better than The Conjuring films. Definitely better than the first film. The acting and creepy direction is good. It does have a slow first hour of the film which can be boring at times. And have its clichés of stupid characters and no one noticing at close distance logical. It could have been a whole lot worse.
I give the film 3 out of 5 stars.