In the summer of 2013, James Wan’s The Conjuring became the horror hit of the year with audiences and critics alike.
Unlike other popular horror franchises, a la the found-footage nonsense festivals known as the Paranormal Activity franchise or the torture-filled, joyless Saw films also created by Wan, The Conjuring was a haunted house film in the grand tradition of The Haunting or The Amityville Horror.
Like all great horror films, it has inspired a spin-off…kind of.
Annabelle is that sort-of prequel to The Conjuring.
The plot of Anabelle revolves around a haunted doll that was featured prominently in the sort-of prologue of The Conjuring.
The Annabelle doll is in the possession of Mia and John (Annabelle Wallis and Ward Horton, respectively), a young couple expecting a baby in 1968 California.
Through a series of unfortunate events, the doll becomes haunted with the spirit of a murderess and continues to terrorize the couple even after they throw the doll away, their daughter is born and they move to a new apartment in Pasadena.
Annabelle, structurally, has little in common with its predecessor.
Whereas The Conjuring was built on mounting tension, Annabelle relies mostly on jump scares and sequences that deliver short bursts of tension.
That’s not to say the movie is bad, per se. It’s just a different type of movie.
Many of the scares in Annabelle are really effective.
The jump scares all land where they should and the sequences that rely on real tension build it quite effectively.
(There is an elevator sequence in this movie that is really effective as it done very simply with little editing and no special effects – just character and terror.)
The cast is uniformly very good. The two leads go through first act of the movie with interesting character quirks so that it’s easier to get through the routine all horror movies seem to begin with.
Tony Amendola – who, I swear, is the doppelganger of F. Murray Abraham – does sturdy work as a local priest who helps the couple with their possessed doll.
Alfre Woodard is also effective as an occult enthusiast who befriends the young couple and makes some of the film’s more incredulous bits easier to swallow with her natural performance.
Director John Leonetti’s movie aesthetically borrows heavily from Rosemary’s Baby.
Mia and John’s apartment calls back to the Polanski horror-classic.
Even Annabelle Wallis’s haircut, mannerism’s and character’s name owes a lot to Mia Farrow as Polanski’s Rosemary.
POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT! The film’s inciting incident, an attempt of murder by a Charles Manson-like cult, harkens back to the life of Roman Polanski as well.
Whether that was intentional or not, I can’t say.
Annabelle isn’t nearly as subtle as Rosemary’s Baby or The Conjuring, but it’s still an enjoyable funhouse movie with some big scares in it.
If you’re looking for something to see on Halloween, this would not be a bad choice.
Brian Laughran
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