Thursday 16 October 2014

Annabelle

"Annabelle" (2014, John R. Leonetti, New Line Cinema, Atomic Monster, The Safran Company, Warner Bros. Pictures) is the follow up to "The Conjuring", this time focussing solely on Annabelle, the possessed doll.

We open the same way as we do on the film's predecessor, with the young nursing students explaining to Ed and Lorraine Warren about their dealings with the creepy doll.

But, the story isn't focussing on their incident, Annabelle's previous targets were John and Mia Form. A young professional couple, expecting their first child. John (Ward Horton) presents his wife, Mia (Annabelle Wallis), with the doll; a rare specimen for her rather large and daunting collection of creepy-ass dolls. Man, was her kid going to be traumatised!

It isn't long before creepy stuff begins. Firstly, the house is broken into by two freaky people, and they attack Mia. It transpires that the assailants are Annabelle (the girl next door) and her boyfriend, who were members of a Satanic Cult. Believing the doll, which featured in the attack, to be tainted, they throw her away. But, like Chucky, she doesn't like that and comes back...

The Forms move house to an apartment block to escape the events, but they just can't get away from the doll which finds them there. The doll inherits the moniker Annabelle after the murderous young girl (what a nice momento) and Mia, feeling safe in her new surroundings, decides to keep her....

It isn't long before the doll begins to manifest creepy happenings and other inanimate objects start being poltergeisty.

They seek help from the church and from a nice lady called Evelyn (Alfre Woodard). But the doll is after something more sinister than just scaring a few people...

With some nice jumpy bits and a good bill of characters that you can build a rapport with, this is actually a pretty good scary doll flick!

It doens't go all Chucky on us either, Annabelle is not a scuttling little maniac with a knife, she is the hiding place of something sinister.

I really haven't got anything bad to say about this film. It takes a lot of inspiration from classics, and it may not be a groundbreaking piece of horror cinema, but it does the job and it does it with class.

Just remember, spooky dollies aren't everyone's cup of tea.

[Image: New Line Cinema, et al]
Hani

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