Annabelle is kind of a prequel to The Conjuring, which was a
really good horror movie from last year.
I say “kind of a prequel” because the doll Annabelle wasn’t a big part
of The Conjuring. If you remember that
movie, when we first met paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren
(Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), they had just finished the case involving
Annabelle. The doll was kept in Ed’s
room full of cursed objects for most of the movie.
Set before the events of The Conjuring, Annabelle starts
with John Gordon giving his pregnant wife Mia a creepy looking doll. Scary stuff starts happening, the couple
moves from their house to an apartment, and scary stuff keeps happening. So it isn’t the house that’s haunted but
something else.
The story of this movie is very predictable. If recycles ideas from better horror movies,
including the wise old lady who owns a vintage bookstore. The store just happens to have just the right
book to explain demons and possession, and the old lady just happens to be an
expert. Another problem is the
characters John and Mia are really boring.
All Mia does is sit around the house all day waiting to be tormented by
a demon. All John does is go to work,
come home and disbelieve his wife. The
performances aren’t bad, but the script gives them absolutely nothing to work
with.
The only things this movie has going for it is its
connection to a far better horror movie and some good scares. And I admit those scares are pretty
good. There’s a sequence in the basement
of their apartment building that really freaked me out. Some creepy stuff happens, Mia gets in the
elevator, the doors close, and when they open she’s still in the basement. This continues for a few minutes, and it was
really effective. There are some other
good scares that made me jump, but that’s it.
When nothing scary is happening, I was just waiting for the next scary
thing to happen. Nothing else happens in
this movie.
So overall, the movie is boring with a few good scares. And that doll is really creepy.
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