Annabelle Creation: review

Director: David Sandberg
Running time: 109 minutes


An entertaining and occasionally clever horror flick that doesn't conjure up much that's new


Annabelle Creation is a prequel to the first Annabelle and Conjuring movies, the plot is centred on a group of girls and a nun who move into an isolated house from a closed down orphanage. They share their new home with doll maker Samuel Mullins (Anthony LaPaglia) and his wife Esther (Miranda Otto), whose daughter tragically died in a roadside accident twelve years earlier. It's when one of the children find a hidden doll by the name of Annabelle that things don't quite go to plan.

To be honest there's not a lot that's particularly original in this movie, much of the themes of religion, isolation and scary dolls are staples of the horror genre. But much like the Conjuring movies, there are moments of tension which build up masterfully to only then deceive you by going in a direction that is often unexpected.

It's very clever bait and switch, but the payoff is sometimes mixed, the jump scares caught me by surprise but do feel a little bit cheap on occasion. It doesn't thankfully rely on jump scares as much as most horror movies tend to do these days.

While the story might follow the same old tropes we have seen before, the performances really shine through, Talitha Bateman and Lulu Wilson play the two child leads, Janice and Linda, perfectly. Child actors can often be a thorn in horror movies, they are either annoying or just unconvincing. But they made the characters sympathetic and believable, we feel their dread as they go through their supernatural ordeal, and uncover the mysteries of Annabelle.

Another thing worth mentioning is the good use of its setting, while there is nothing about the house's design that stood out from anything else of the genre. It's shot in a way that makes it peculiarly unnerving and menacing, but homely nevertheless. A place that's lived in rather than just a plot device for the characters.

But, as I said, there is not much here that's new, it's a little bit jack of all trades but the master of nothing. And while the plot's central mystery unfolds rather well, the actual origin story of Annabelle is not nearly as satisfying as it could have been. It's kind of predictable and ultimately a wasted opportunity.  

I'd recommend this to anyone who is a fan of the genre, and for those who liked the previous Conjuring movies. There is an abundance of scares and intrigue here, even if it follows a direction we have already seen.

Verdict: 3/5