Annabelle: Creation - movie review

Annabelle: Creation

Plot: Twelve years after the tragic death of their little girl, a dollmaker and his wife welcome a nun and several girls from a shuttered orphanage into their home, where they soon become the target of the dollmaker's possessed creation, Annabelle.
Cast: Stephanie Sigman, Talitha Bateman, Anthony LaPaglia
Director: David F. Sandberg
Certificate: 15 (strong horror, violence, gory images)
Runtime: 1hr 49 mins
Release Date: Friday 11th August 2017

It's very rare that we get a sequel miles better than the original. It's also very rare that a horror sequel is good, let alone an improvement of what came before. However, with the release of Annabelle: Creation, those expectations have been defied because this, is not just a vast improvement compared to the 2014 Annabelle, but a fantastic horror movie in its own right. Set many years before the first Annabelle and prior to the Warrens involving themselves (The Conjuring), Annabelle: Creation focuses on how this demon came to find itself within the eponymous doll and haunting a family (and newly moved in orphanage) in the process. What we end up with is a terrifying and entertaining experience at the movies. It's not exactly pushing boundaries of what can be done with horror but through effective scares and a brilliant build up of tension, this ends up becoming the best horror film of the year so far.

Snickers - you're not you when you're hungry.

What the first Annabelle struggled with most was the entertainment value. I'm not asking for all horror films to play to the audience and get them ramped up in terror rather than craft together a worthwhile film (heck, one of my favourite horror films is The Witch and that's hardly a film for everyone) but at times, I can forgo daring filmmaking for good old fashioned scares, thrills and chills and Annabelle: Creation most definitely delivered on that aspect. The first Annabelle was a near two hour slog as we trudge towards another ineffective jumpscare that causes me to yawn rather than scream. Hiring David F. Sandberg was already a step forward especially after his debut with last year's Lights Out. If there's one thing Sandberg has proved himself to be good at is building tension so your heart rate gradually increases until it's bursting out of your chest. In Light's Out, he manipulated the fear of the dark but in Creation, he moves onto the fear of the supernatural and playing on as many fears as possible. Fortunately, with Annabelle: Creation, we don't have to wait long until the scares begin. It's almost instantaneous when the girls move into their new home that things begin to go bump in the night. Much of the spooky goings on centre on young Janice, a girl at the orphanage who is reeling from polio. She accidentally stumbles upon the demon and it refuses to leave her alone. For a while, the demon plays an elongated game of cat and mouse with Janice as it toys with her in a forbidden room but soon reaches levels of insanity on a staircase sequence that was causing me and many more of the audience to be gasping and quietly yelling various commands at the screen for Janice to do in order for her to survive. Buckle and unbuckle being two of the most common ones. From that point onwards, the scares never let up as we encounter the full force of what the demon is capable of and Sandberg isn't afraid of putting young children in mortal peril and displaying some truly disturbing imagery. It's not often that a horror film can make me recoil back in fright but there are points that, due to what I was witnessing on screen, it filled me with a sense of discomfort and uneasiness but the good kind. When this film is looked back upon in years to come, moments like the staircase sequence, the cannonball toy scene and the shed will be remembered as expertly crafted horror. There's no doubt about it; Annabelle: Creation is an incredible horror experience. Where it falters is being a horror FILM.

I knew I shouldn't have installed that ejector seat.

FACT: Talitha Bateman, playing the leading role as Janice, is the older sister of Gabriel Bateman, who starred in Lights Out. Lights Out was the feature film directorial debut of Annabelle Creation's director, David Sandberg.

Similar to Light's Out, Sandberg has an undeniable knack for creating iconic horror moments. What he struggles with, is piecing a film together so it can flow in the correct manner. The biggest issue that Annabelle: Creation encounters is the lack of point to it all. In The Conjuring 1 and 2, we are given an explanation as to why the significant demon is possessing this specific group of people. Even in the first Annabelle, we understand why Annabelle has targeted her selected group of individuals. In Creation, we aren't privy to this information. Whilst this doesn't necessarily hinder my enjoyment of the film, it is a glaring issue. The lack of explanation was able to be overlooked as the scares more than made up for it. Where the film cannot be redeemed are some of the performances. Aside from Talitha Bateman who does a sensational job at leading this film and succeeding with a difficult performance that most adults would struggle with, let alone a child, and Lulu Wilson who, straight off of her star making turn in Ouija: Origin Of Evil (another horror sequel far better than the first) does a great job too as Janice's closest friend, the other performances land on either being mediocre or just plain bad. Anthony LaPaglia and Miranda Otto portray the husband and wife who own this haunted house and whilst their performances aren't anything too terrible, their characters are idiots. They make stupid and cliched horror movie decisions that result in huge and disastrous ramifications for everyone. Stephanie Sigman puts in an average effort for her role as the orphanage nun but it's the other girls who cannot hold their own in this film. Some of their performances are awful to watch especially faced with a haunted scarecrow. The other issue that I just can't overlook is how we still don't really know that much about Annabelle nor how she came to be. All we are informed about is how the demon transfers into the doll. So much for 'Creation'. We are still clueless as to what the Annabelle demon is and why it attacks the people it chooses. Maybe it was due to The Warrens not appearing to deliver some much needed exposition or maybe it could be the fact that a third movie could be in the works that will explain the creation of Annabelle's creation. All I know, is that this film didn't exactly give me what I had hoped in regards to the Annabelle mythos.

Here's a tip - CLOSE THE DAMN DOOR!

Underwhelming performances (Bateman and Wilson being the only exceptions) and a confusing lore are the only negatives to be found in an otherwise brilliant mainstream horror. It does not disappoint with the scares and will absolutely please any horror fan out there. It may not be breaking the mould of what horror movies are but there's nothing wrong with a back to basics, throwback to proper scary movies.

My Verdict: 8/10

What did you think of Annabelle: Creation? What do you think is the best horror sequel? Sound off in the comments below.

If you like what you've seen here don't forget to share this with everyone you know, comment below and check out my other reviews. Thanks for reading!!