31 Nights of Horror # 3 Annabelle (2014)

Annabelle (2014)

Director: John R. Leonetti

Starring: Annabelle Wallis, Ward Horton, Alfre Woodard

Summary Spoilers!
This film is a spin off of The Conjuring (2013) James Wan, the director of The Conjuring returns to Annabelle as a producer. This film is the latest in the popular demonic possession genre. In The Conjuring we were introduced to an evil little doll named Annabelle. The popularity of that film spawned a spinoff placing the possessed doll in the spotlight. This film takes us back to what caused the doll to have a spirit attacked to it. A cult member committed suicide and a demon that she summoned attacked itself to the doll. As the movie continues the doll starts causing havoc to the family with only the wife believing something was going on. As the wife’s mental state goes down she meets an older woman who lives grieving for her daughter that died in a car accident. A priest is brought in to see the doll and he takes it with him to a church. While entering the church he is brutally attacked by an unseen force. The doll returns to the house and is trying to steal the soul of the baby. The husband learns of the intentions of the doll while visiting the Priest and rushes back to his wife. The demon hides the baby in the house and will not give her back without a soul in return. The older woman holds Annabelle and jumps out the window to sacrifice herself to help the baby. The doll vanishes from the dead body and wasn’t seen for some time. The movie jumps to a clip of a woman purchasing the doll from a pawn shop for her daughter, leading us to the events of The Conjuring.

The Good

The film has some good scares occasionally. A scene in the basement was the most suspenseful. If the viewer is extremely afraid of dolls then this is the perfect scary movie for them.

The Bad

The film isn’t terrible it just lacks anything new and creative. The plot follows the same formula as other films. The father doesn’t believe the wife scenario. Women are crazy, men are logical. It takes forever for the male to believe what’s going on. This takes it away from the film and I feel a whole lot of effort wasn’t put in to make it better. It had the potential to make Child’s Play look even worse (If that’s even possible. More on that later.) but fails in the long run and doesn’t hold up on original scares.

Overall

2/5. It could be well liked by doll lovers.

Fun facts

The doll is based on a real doll named Annabelle that is locked in a glass case that belonged to Ed and Lorraine Warren. The events of this film are a fictionalized origin story.