Annabelle: Creation (2017)
IMDb genre: Horror/Mystery/Thriller
Director: David F Sandberg
Writer: Gary Dauberman
Starring: Anthony LaPaglia, Samara Lee, Miranda Otto
I'd heard terrible things about the first Annabelle so I never bothered with it until the trailer for the second installment caught my attention. It was better than I thought, the bit with the lift & rubbish cages really got to me, but it dragged in places and seemed to end quite abruptly. So I went in with tentatively good expectations for the sequel.
I hadn't looked into who was directing before I went in but if I'm honest I was disappointed initially in the choice of David F Sandberg because Lights Out was a let-down for me; I liked the short but when it went to the big screen every scare was the same and the ending was hinted at from miles away but played as though we should be surprised. I was also surprised to see that Blumhouse weren't one of the studios attached to this but after doing some research it turns out they weren't involved in The Conjuring films either so apparently I just give them too much credit!
The film opens with Annabelle being made, as a normal doll not a demonic conduit, but here eyes are still so damn creepy so even the fake-out scares just afterwards got me a little. I think it's a really great choice to give some background on Samuel and Esther Mullins (played by Anthony LaPaglia and Miranda Otto respectively) at the beginning of the movie not in flashbacks. When we jump 12 years and the action begins Samuel is grumpy and stand-offish and Esther is bedbound with a mysterious mask so without any background I think it would have been hard to see why they'd let the orphanage stay at all and it would have been easy to play them off as potential villains, admittedly Esther is feared by the children but that's due to overactive imaginations and it leads to a truly great scare so I'll allow it.
The acting was good throughout but the stand-out stars for me were the youngest ones; Lulu Wilson as Linda and Talitha Bateman as Janice not just because they seemed so genuinely terrified that it added to the scares for me. Linda is a likable character who reacts as she should even when others around her don't, look out for the night-time well scene to see what I mean. Janice sometimes makes the less rational decisions but she also has a physical limitation which makes everything she goes through, and it's a lot, seem so much worse. Without giving too many spoilers even the end does not wrap things up for her and she should at least be in the top three names on IMDb, we must start a 'Justice for Janice' campaign immediately.
Speaking of the ending, there seems to be a last-minute desperation to link it up with the previous installment which didn't really work for me. This is something that annoyed me with Ouija: Origin of Evil too. There's another subtler nod to a different movie within the franchise which I quite liked but I must admit it's getting weird that everything has to be a shared universe movie now, although that trend isn't going to stop for a while!
So; quite scary, better than expected, please treat your child characters better.
General Opinion:
I'm more impressed than I thought I would be after the first film and it was fun to watch on opening night as it was a good atmosphere with lots of screaming and laughing. It's still not one I'd watch again and again though.
Heavily reliant on jump scares which that's fun sometimes and they're funny in places here. I didn't think it would stick with me afterwards but I forgot my sister was home and freaked out when the quilt on the other bed moved in the middle of the night so maybe it did!
There are more 'grossout' moments rather than full-on gore but they definitely got a reaction.
Pretty funny in places, some of the scares will make you laugh but towards the end it focuses more on the horror which is a good choice.
Annabelle: Creation is currently in UK cinemas.
