Annabelle Review:
Plastic, Dull &
Forgettable Horror
BY IAN
TAN
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| Promotional Poster: Scarier than the actual movie |
Annabelle is set a few years prior to the events in The Conjuring, showcasing the origins of how the titular doll
became the infamous creepy critter we all know her to be. The story begins with
expecting couple John and Mia. To celebrate, John (men, take note) gifts her a doll that she has long been searching for to complete her collection.
This, as the audience knows, is a terrible idea. Nobody in the right mind would
ever purchase such a doll, even in its non-possessed, spotless, clean form.
Anyways…
Unlike The Conjuring or
other James Wan films, Annabelle
struggles to find logicality to drive its characters’ sometimes downright
stupid decisions. The acting and script is rather bland, with a few
standout characters in the form of Father Perez and bookstore owner Evelyn,
both of whom are given fine performances by Tony Amendola and Alfre Woodward
respectively. The main couple of this movie however, is serviceable to say the
most. Annabelle Wallis, who plays Mia, tries to inject some emotion and depth
to her character, but simply isn’t as engaging to watch compared to female
leads in other horror films. This is especially an issue when the horror
sequences start building up.
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| "Oh don't mind me. Just needed to rest my head a little." |
In terms of scare value, Annabelle
pales in comparison to The Conjuring
by a long shot. Although very obviously inspired by the filmmaking style of
James Wan, with wide shots of dark, shadowy rooms and violin-heavy music, much
of Annabelle feels all too familiar
to Wan’s previous works, to the point that audiences are able to tell when a
scare is going to happen and where. It is respectable to see Leonetti pay
homage to Wan, but the film would have benefited more from a few bolder steps
in the horror department. The titular Annabelle doll, for instance, does not
seem as frightening or as threatening as it did in its first big-screen
appearance, nor does it provide the film with the same eerie presence it did before
with The Conjuring. Here, Annabelle
feels more like a prop piece, with the real enemy being the demonic presence
that has latched itself onto the doll, but this demonic presence isn’t present
enough to generate many scares from the audience. There was one hallway
sequence, however, that was quite chilling. Apart from that one truly intense sequence, most of the film relies on jump scares and close-up shots of
the doll doing, well, nothing. The ending of this movie too, is … “meh”, with
its connection to the beginning of The
Conjuring feeling rather lackluster. This is one of those
prequels that doesn’t do a good job at tying into its predecessor in a way that
allows audiences to recognize the references, foreshadowing or relation to it.
The foreshadowing part is there, but it’s so poorly done that I feel even James
Wan would be disappointed by it.
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| "Stare down, you and me." |
To begin with, I really wished that this film had focused purely on
the three siblings that encountered this doll (you know, the ones in the
beginning of The Conjuring), rather
than the married couple that had the doll before them. The sibling encounter
story would have been something interesting to see on screen, but alas, we’re
given this movie instead.
On the whole, Annabelle comes
off as quite a disappointment for fans of The
Conjuring, and fans of horror in general. With rarely any memorable scares,
dull characters, and a lack of originality or genuine creepiness, Annabelle fails on almost all cylinders
as a horror film. Annabelle’s ten-minute intro sequence in The Conjuring is without a doubt more fulfilling, terrifying and
scare-worthy than this unfortunately dull horror affair.
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| Master on the right, apprentice on the left. |
Final Thoughts
Annabelle gets 5.5 out of 10 stars – Wan
wouldn’t be proud.
