Annabelle

Starring: Annabelle Wallis, Ward Horton,Tony Amendola, Alfre Woodard
Directed by: John R. Leonetti
Rating: R
Genre: Horror
2014

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A couple (Annabelle Wallis, Ward Horton) experience supernatural terrors that seem to center around a doll.

Review:

Tim: I was really looking forward to Annabelle, after the surprisingly great The Conjuring. That movie proved to be incredibly scary and fascinating, and I loved the idea of spinning off a film about the creepy doll introduced at the beginning of the film. The idea of developing a horror franchise around Ed and Lorraine Warren is exciting to me. While I would have preferred a true sequel, this prequel/spinoff was still pretty exciting.

My excitement was immediately dampened when I learned the film was directed by John R. Leonetti, who was responsible for Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my life. I tried not to let this ruin the experience, because who knows, with 17 years of experience, maybe Leonetti could do better. While Annabelle isn't terrible, it represents a very large drop in quality from The Conjuring. That left me feeling very disappointed with this film. It might not be terrible, but the expectations were raised and we deserved better.

The biggest problem with the movie is that it isn't all that scary. Sure, there are a few genuinely frightening moments, but the film relies far too much on cheap scares. There's too many scenes where something jumps towards the audience in an effort to frighten us. That requires no thought or effort. Yes, a few times I jumped, but that was being startled- it wasn't being legitimately afraid. There were very few legitimately good scares. That is very unfortunate, because the first film was creepy and honestly scary. This one pales in comparison.

The cast is really bad, too. I have no idea who Annabelle Wallis is, but I have to assume they hired her just because of her first name, with no attention paid to her level of talent. She gives a wooden, occasionally awful performance. I can't think of a single moment where she impressed me. I could say the exact same thing about Ward Horton. Based on this film, I believe he has no business headlining a film ever. Both Wallis and Horton are quite bad here. Some of the blame is on Leonetti, some is on the script, but a lot of it still falls on their shoulders. Tony Amendola and Alfre Woodard were nice additions to the cast, but their positives don't outweigh the hit taken to the film by the leads.

It doesn't feel like a lot was adding to the mythology with this film. Yes, we learned more about the Annabelle doll, but it wasn't anything we haven't seen numerous times before. The doll is possessed by a demon looking for souls. That's been done already, and Annabelle has almost nothing new to add on the subject. I will say that I appreciated the few times we saw the demon on screen- that was unexpected and appreciated.

While I'm mostly negative about this movie, I do admit there were a few tense moments. One of my favorites was when the Annabelle doll slowly stood up, revealing what was behind it. The other was the sequence in the elevator in the basement. This was an example of an idea that wasn't new, but was executed exceptionally well. I was legitimately nervous during that scene. It was certainly a highlight. On the other hand, the conclusion of the film felt forced and ineffective. There were a few interesting ideas there, but Leonetti never manages to leverage them well. Numerous opportunities were missed.

After thoroughly enjoying The Conjuring, I was hoping Annabelle would establish this as a new horror franchise that was to be reckoned with. After seeing this film, I'm very afraid that the first film was a fluke and that the rest of the films will be average or worse. This movie did well at the box office, so we'll be getting more movies. The only question is, what level of quality will we be getting?

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Conjuring