Review – Annabelle: Creation

I hated, HATED the first Annabelle (2014).  It was incredibly boring, had absolutely zero scares, and felt like a cash grab riding on the coattails of the success of The Conjuring (2013).  But with Annabelle: Creation, we have a rare occurrence on our hands where a horror sequel, or in this case, a prequel, is better than the original.  This isn’t just an improvement on the first film, this is a complete 180.  Director David S. Sandberg has created a fun, genuinely scary film.

In Annabelle: Creation, a dollmaker (Anthony LaPaglia) and his wife Esther (Miranda Otto) welcome a nun and several orphaned girls into their home years after the tragic death of their daughter.  When strange things start happening around the house, the girls soon realize that they are the target of the dollmaker’s possessed creation, Annabelle.

Sandberg’s directorial debut, Lights Out (2016), was a movie that had some flashes of coolness, but overall was one that I was not a fan of because it lacked the scares.  I saw Sandberg’s potential, but it wasn’t fully realized in Lights Out.  That movie was rated PG-13 and that right there is the difference between Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation.  Sandberg has more range and freedom here with the R-rating and that improved his direction and the film.  Sandberg creates a slow burn horror film that relies on shock and terror rather than gore.  Much like The Conjuring films, no time of day is safe.  Where lesser horror movies focus most of the horror at night or in dark places, the scares come from all over the place.  Whether it is a bright, sunny afternoon or dark, eerie night, you never know when something is going to happen.  This movie is like when you see a spider on your wall and you go to kill it, but when you swat at the spider, you look to see the murdered insect and it isn’t there and you have no idea where the spider went.  You just sit and wait, wondering when it will appear.  Sandberg is the spider and we just have to sit and wait for the horror to happen.

One of my favorite aspects of the film is the kids.  None of them give really special performance, but it’s the idea of children being our main characters.  What this does is take away a lot of the stupidity in the decisions the characters make.  Normally in horror movies, we have adults as our main characters and when there is a loud noise in the basement or something like that, as adults, we should know not to look where that loud noise came from.  But children don’t.  Children will go to where the loud noise is.  Children will be enamored by a doll no matter how creepy it may look.  So instead of rolling our eyes at the stupid adults making child-like decisions, we worry for these kids making decisions normal kids would make.

Annabelle: Creation is a worthy entry into the Conjuring franchise.  This is a terrifyingly fun and creepy film that will satisfy all horror fans.

Did you see Annabelle: Creation?  What did you think?  Comment below or hit me up on Twitter and Instagram, @kevflix, or on Facebook by searching Kevflix.