Film Review: “Annabelle”

Annabelle is the prequel to 2013’s The Conjuring, directed by James Wan, which received generally favorable reviews.  James Wan handed the directorial baton over to his cinematographer, John R. Leonetti, whose previous experience includes Mortal Kombat: Annihilation and The Butterfly Effect 2; safe to say that this may not have been a wise choice.

The film opens with a scene from The Conjuring describing the Annabelle doll and its alleged possession by a murderous demon by a couple of young nurses to Ed and Lorraine Warren. One year earlier, Annabelle centers on a young couple, John (Ward Horton) and Mia (Annabelle Wallis) Form, expecting their first child. Mia collects antique dolls. Husband John surprises her with a new rare collectible doll to add to her assortment in the baby’s nursery. Soon after the doll arrives Mia awakens to screams next door. Their neighbors are being murdered by their deranged daughter Annabelle and her boyfriend. They are members of a satanic cult making a sacrifice to Lucifer. John goes to investigate the screams next door, leaving pregnant Mia alone in the house. The assailants make their way to Mia and assault her. Before things escalate any further, the police arrive and gun down the intruders. Annabelle is holding the new doll as a single drop of her blood is absorbed through the doll’s eye socket.

This plot is promising enough. The association with The Conjuring makes Annabelle even more alluring. Unfortunately, Annabelle does not even come close to its predecessor’s quality. The scariest part of this movie is the acting. Annabelle Wallis shares the name of the antagonist. She also shares the doll’s level of acting skills. Wallis is an English actress best known for Showtime’s The Tudors. I don’t know if that show requires facial expressions, but I’m going to guess that it does. In that case, I’m going to assume she doesn’t perform much better on TV. She refuses to put any sort of enthusiasm into her performance. Ward Horton, however, provides us with plenty of generic emotions. Together, this couple is unbelievable, as in it’s impossible to get stitched into this story. Not for a second do you believe anything Annabelle is trying to sell you.

The production style of this film is reminiscent of The Conjuring which is mildly enjoyable. The score is also similar, except for the addition of cheesy melodramatic ballads which gives certain scenes the feel of a soap opera. There are a few jump scares, but even these aren’t effective because you can see them a mile away. The shot is framed in such a way that the character is on one side and a long hall or doorway is in full view. The wide shot enables the audience to anticipate the scares minutes before they happen; thus negating them all together. You see the devil in this movie, literally the face of the devil, horns and all. It is the least frightening representation of Satan you will ever encounter. Nothing is hidden. There’s no mystery or spookiness to the character at all. Also, he’s not really worked into the story. It goes from the doll being possessed by a small child to Annabelle to a possible demon to Satan without any explanation. There is a priest, of course, that attempts to provide answers, but he is generic and uninformative.

There is one scary scene in Annabelle in which Mia is trying to take the elevator from the basement up to her apartment after being spooked. However, the apartment keeps opening up to the same eerie storage cellar. This scene is well shot and actually invokes some anticipation. However, this scene alone is not enough to redeem Annabelle. This movie combines lackluster scares with uninspired acting to create a prequel far less ambitious than the original.