One day after her husband returns from work, expectant mother Mia Gordon receives a surprise gift from her companion John: a rare antique doll, adjourned in a white dress with rosy cheeks and a distinguished-looking smile to boot. Their happiness is short-lived, however, when one random night, they are attacked in their home by a crazed woman and her partner. Though the couple is shot dead by the police, and the police begin to investigate the background and motives of this now-deceased maniacal duo, the Gordons feel the instinct to move from their neighborhood. Shortly after the birth of their daughter, and through police revelations, Mia begins to suspect that her new treasured possession could have served as a conduit for something far more sinister than anyone could have ever expected.
Do you remember last year's surprise hit (and surprisingly good) The Conjuring? Do you remember that doll that got about two minutes worth of screen time, receiving only a brief mention of its own horrendously frightening background? Well, director James Wan (Saw, Insidious) must have felt compelled to give you a full breakdown into said background, and thusly….wait, James Wan didn't direct this? He only produces it? Well, who did direct Annabelle?
*checks wikipedia*
Who the hell is John R. Leonetti?
Well, now that that….horrifying discovery is out of the way, how does Annabelle stack up to its companion piece/sequel of sorts?
For starters, I'll give cinematographer James Kniest, who has previously worked on Child's Play 3 (can't make that up), credit for setting up a good, mostly uneasy atmosphere, and making the audience feel fairly nervous once the shenanigans involving the occult begin to take effect on our poor, tortured, if not slightly white-bread family. There are also excellent scares in the form of an elevator sequence, and a couple of random jump scares, which are set up and work rather well considering that someone like myself doesn't care much for them anymore. And despite my intense dislike for this director, he does manage to stir up some competent performances from star Annabelle Wallis and her magical negro companion, played by veteran actress Alfre Woodard. Yes the main actress' real name is also Annabelle. I don't even know what to tell you there. Maybe it was pure coincidence. That or the casting director has a very sick sense of humor.
The decision to show essentially no movement of the doll herself is an interesting choice as well. As much as I love the Chucky doll from Child's Play (from which this borrows far too much), there are times when your suspension of disbelief wakes back up and you can't help but chuckle when you see him run or do anything active. I always wonder why most couples would ever think of keeping a doll that looks like Annabelle in the first place though. True, she starts off looking relatively normal, but the facial features start to droop over time, and it really isn't until the end of the picture when she starts to resemble the eerie-looking toy that we glanced at in The Conjuring. Take for example The Cabbage Patch Kids. They have rotund faces, and not an ounce of malice in their features. Keep one of them around, and I guarantee you that not a single evil spirit shall rear its horrific face. But I think I'm just entering rambling, nitpicker mode now, especially since the film establishes the fact that the doll isn't so easily discarded.
Alas, I think the main problem which does befall Annabelle was one that I was afraid of from the get-go: it just isn't very original. As I stated above, the main cast is more than capable of delivering the goods, but there is so little in the way of originality in the flick itself. Even the film's admittedly intense final act borrows heavily from certain pictures like Hellraiser and The Exorcist. Actually, now that I've mentioned it, there is a LOT borrowed from the latter, as well as Child's Play, The Changeling, Rosemary's Baby, and even its cousins in The Conjuring and Insidious. Yes, I stated in my reviews of the Mimic sequels that it's fine if you want to pay homage or rip off a classic, but there is a certain line you shouldn't cross, especially if it ends up coming from multiple, varied sources and it finds its way into something that is distributed to quite a good amount of theaters. Motion picture comparisons aside, I can give Leonetti, James Wan, and their associated crew credit for one other thing as well: they sure know how to create some incredibly lame-looking monsters. If you thought that the Darth Maul demon from Insidious looked outrageously silly, then you clearly aren't ready for their interpretation of Annabelle's "master."
In terms of theatrically-released horror films during the fall period, Annabelle is one of several out there to choose from. I can't say for certain that I'll be paying money to watch Kevin Smith's Tusk (I don't know if I can trust the man after his previous two duds), the upcoming remake of The Town That Dreaded Sundown (I have been hunting down the original for some time now), or the Michael Bay-produced Ouija (which was the only horror movie trailer attached to my screening), but I had no problem paying a little under eight dollars to see this fun, but very flawed companion piece to The Conjuring. Would I ever expect it to be held in the same breath as that surprisingly good ghost story? Absolutely not.
But it certainly beats being stalked by that much scarier Zuni doll from Trilogy of Terror.
Tomorrow, it's back to the bugs with the ever-so-gross The Nest!
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