October is coming, and you know what that means. Crisp weather, autumn leaves, pumpkin spiced everything. And horror movies. 45 days from today, we begin our 6th annual 31 Days of Halloween – and to wet your palate – the grisly Annabelle doll returns in James Wan’s new release “Annabelle: Creation.”
Wan, the twisted mind behind the “Saw” movie series, “Insidious,” and “The Conjuring,” knows what it takes to get the screams, jumps, and chills out of anyone, and doesn’t disappoint with his latest installment, a prequel to the 2014 movie “Annabelle.”
Fans of horror first got a glimpse of the wretched looking doll briefly (albeit terrifying) in 2013’s “The Conjuring” and though the title implies that Annabelle the doll is the focal point of the story, writer Gary Dauberman does a brilliant job of displaying the scares in a variety of other ways.
What makes “Annabelle” a chilling tale is that we all know the doll is frightening just to look at, and though it’s what we want to see, we are kept in suspense as the story progresses. She isn’t armed with a knife like Chucky, walking about and slashing everything in the way. Rather, the viewer knows that somewhere in the shadows, Annabelle is lurking quietly. How and when she makes her appearance is psychologically terrifying.
I enjoyed the catalyst for the story tremendously. A group of orphaned teenage girls come to stay at a remote farmhouse owned by doll maker Samuel Mullins (Anthony LaPaglia) and the ’50s era backdrop is the best way to tell a scary story. We get the haunting melody of an old record player, the creaking floorboards in a rustic house, and of course no cell phones to quickly draw for help when needed.
Talitha Bateman and Lulu Wilson do a fantastic job in the lead roles of orphans Janice and Linda. Both girls play well off each other and demonstrate the ideal demeanor one looks for in a horror story – an inquisitive and almost reclusive nature when it comes to late night expeditions into an ominous and off-limits room in the Mullins farmhouse. It’s amazing that Bateman is fifteen, and Wilson just eleven years old. Both act well beyond their years in a movie that, let’s face it, wasn’t designed for its thespian appeal.
Director David F. Sandberg inserts a host of jump moments and downright scary stuff, from the obvious atmosphere of a haunted house, to the subtler inclusion of the bedridden Mrs. Mullins, who summons her dutiful husband with the clanging of a bell, and the leg brace Janice is forced to wear that keeps her anything but spry in the face of imminent danger. And of course, Annabelle herself is present with that haunting gape and lifeless eyes that in itself is a thing of horror beauty.
My complaints with “Annabelle: Creation” mimic the flaws I found with “The Conjuring” and specifically, the third and final act of the story. The atmosphere is the perfect ambiance for horror and the shenanigans of Janice and Linda, coupled with ghostly experiences by fellow orphans Nancy and Carol (Philippa Coulthard and Grace Fulton) and their charge, Sister Charlotte (Stephanie Sigman) will leave the viewer on pins and needles for the first hour-plus of the film.
I won’t divulge spoilers, but I was chilled to the bone during multiple scenes, and jumped in my seat a time or two as well, and was poised to bestow all-time great status to the movie. But in “Conjuring” fashion, the story takes a bit of a dive when the concluding portion begins the head scratching explanation of the occurrences, and the insertion of the overused demonic possession theme. We can have suspension of belief with a horror movie, and I think its okay to just have a haunted house and a creepy doll without getting too carried away with the details.
Nevertheless, “Annabelle: Creation” is a perfect theater adventure, and a great way to warm up for the fast approaching Halloween season. James Wan has cemented himself in the horror hall of fame, and I’m pretty sure we haven’t heard the last from Annabelle either.
by – Matt Christopher
