Film of the Week: Annabelle: Creation

The fourth instalment to The Conjuring franchise, and a prequel to the 2014 horror film, Annabelle, this horror film is much scarier than its predecessor, but still has a long way to go before it becomes number 1 in the entire franchise; that top spot is still held by the first Conjuring film. However, that doesn’t mean this film isn’t scary, because it most certainly is. What makes the story of this film also entertaining, is because it serves as a standalone story.

It doesn’t set up the film Annabelle by using the same characters, those events are only introduced right at the very end, allowing this film to have an imagination and create a unique and genuinely scary experience for the audience. We learn how the doll is made, and how it became cursed, and what was done to prevent the evil spirit hurting anyone.

It became cursed when the Mullins believed their deceased daughter was trying to get back into contact with them by asking permission to enter the doll, and over the next few months, the spirit grew stronger and manipulated the Mullins feelings by projecting an image of their daughter about the house, having fun, as if everything was normal. That is, until the spirit grew strong enough that it was able to start making advances towards taking the mum’s soul, Esther Mullins. They attempted to seal the doll in a room, where the walls were covered in pages of the bible and blessed by a priest. All was OK, until 12 years later when the father, Samuel Mullins (Anthony LaPaglia) opened their home as an orphanage for a group of girls whose orphanage they were living at closed down.

Janice (Talitha Bateman) was the unfortunate chosen one by the evil spirit, and was successful in taking over her body after playing around, growing stronger and a couple failed attempts. There were many atmospheric shorts as we saw fleeting glimpses of the spirit before it started to tease poor Janice. There were a few moments where the hairs on the back of my neck stood up on end, not because of any jump scares, because there are barely any, but purely because of how the director, David F. Sandberg creatively uses the screen to make sure you’re on the edge of the seat at all times.

In conclusion:

It’s not as scary as the first Conjuring film, but it’s definitely the second scariest film in the franchise and should be watched more than once just in case you’ve missed something whilst covering your eyes.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)