As we frolic into one of my favorite seasons (Halloween), along comes the usual crop of horror movies, with this prequel to the (surprisingly) good 2013 film, The Conjuring (see earlier review).
Annabelle takes place approximately 5-7 years before the events in The Conjuring and longer than that for the events in The Amityville Horror, two celebrated cases from the the husband-wife paranormal team Ed and Lorraine Warren. Annabelle starts even before the events described in The Conjuring where a demon-infused doll ended up in the hands of the nursing students and finally the Warrens. This time, the unfortunate victims are a lovely young, married couple about to have their first child. It takes place in the late 60's when there was a lot of occult-inspired crimes going on like the Manson family murders. Indeed, the couple is attacked in their home by a pair of these devil-worshipping types which brings the problems in the first place. Soon after, mysterious forces begin to...ahem..."devil" the young mother and her child. After the couple move to another town, the events follow them and grow even more malefic and intense until they discover the a demon has anchored itself onto the creepy Annabelle doll. It becomes obvious the demon wants the kid's soul and so the couple must do spiritual battle against the demon with tragic results.
Okay, so I went to Annabelle not expecting much aaaaand...I kind of got what I expected. The movie is not bad per se, but it is lackluster. Based on the success of The Conjuring, we are now entering the cycle of crappy (pre)sequels that will continue until the original great idea has been flogged to death into a degenerate downward cycle of ever-increasing irrelevance and gore. Warner Bros. has already said they are excited about another sequel, so prepare yourselves. However, shockingly, the movie is not too bad. It keeps the gore quotient to a minimum while preserving some good old fashioned scares. Now, don't be fooled. This is a "boo!" movie, plain and simple. There is nothing deeper or interesting about it, but it's a pretty good one. The makers valiantly attempt to make a horror film, not a slasher; that is, keeping a pervasive sense of dread throughout the film. This is hard to do, but ultimately, more satisfying. It is the difference between Halloween and Friday the 13th. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Toolbox Murders. Hostel and Saw. The Blair Witch Project and Apollo 18. The Exorcist and The Gates of Hell. John Carpernter's The Thing and Pihranna. Se7en versus The Bone Collector. Deep Blue Sea and Sharknado. Yes, even the schlockfests Nightmare On Elm Street versus The Human Centipede or Scream and Scary Movie. Hollywood loves to make horror movies because they don't cost a lot and most of its dumb audience (yes, I see you looking at me...) not demanding something better. At least for this time, it was okay. It seems a little too preoccupied to reference its better precursors by referring to the Warrens through implication twice and a quote from Lorraine at the end. There were some fun scares and some creepy imagery, but ultimately Annabelle is a lightweight and an unfortunate harbinger of things to come.
On a personal note, if they are going to continue on a franchise of Ed and Lorraine Warrens' ghostbusters adventures, I would love to see Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga reprise their very sympathetic roles. They were both great in them and very likeable protagonists.
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