131.
Annabelle: Creation
9/10
Probably one of my most anticipated movie of the year. With my love of horror movies, IT was an Odeon exclusive before this film began. This too, looked amazing but for now, it's time to delve back into the Conjuring Universe and find out about how the doll was made. The first Annebelle movie was ok, but seemed like a filler between the actual Conjuring movies themselves. When I seen the trailer to this one, there was a sense of excitement. I'm not someone who usually 'jumps' whilst watching a horror movie, but when I do, it's definitely a good sign. With the cast consisting of a group of young girls, it was going to be interesting to find out about their acting ability. Was this going to be a great horror? Or a horrible attempt, gearing up towards its big competitor in the shape of Pennywise the Clown.
1943 and a dollmaker is seen in his shop, creating dolls, clearly Annabelle style and many of them. Once he finishes his first, he opens the back and labels it 1 of 100. A letter slips under his door, his daughter asking to play hide and seek. Once he's found her, he and his wife take turns in tickling her, clearly wanting to show how close and in love this family truly is. The next day and the family are in church and upon leaving, the father is asked about a doll order that he is finishing up. As the trio drive home, a tyre blows and as Samuel is changing it, the daughter 'Bee' runs out, chasing her toy and straight into an oncoming car. Her doll slams into the floor with half of its face missing. The title of the movie appears as a branding onto the back of wood, appearing as the wood that was labelled on the back of the doll earlier. Along with this we see that the doll that the daughter has now moved in to, is being put in a closet full of pages, priests using holy water and locked away for good.
Twelve years passes and we aboard a bus from an orphanage, carrying 6 girls, a Priest and Sister Charlotte. The Mullins, our family from the beginning, are offering their home as shelter for this group, apart from the Priest. 4 girls stick together and the other two, Janice and Linda, have to bunk as the outcasts of the group. Janice has a brace on her leg as she struggles walking due to polio. The girls are shown around in a near enough montage style with music but as Janice gets to a door, it's locked and Samuel sternly tells her that it stays that way. At night, Janice wakes as a letter slides under her door, asking her to come and find her. Getting to the locked door, it unlocks and she enters, finding a doll house, a key hidden in a closet in it and uses the key to unlock the actual closet inside the room. Opening it, she sees a doll, the Annebelle doll and the closet door now begins to open itself, even after repeatedly being closed. The demon has now unknowingly been unleashed and begins to slowly terrorise the girls. Sister Charlotte has been shown to her room and the door to a small lift keeps opening. Along with that, Samuel notices a picture of her on her bedside table. It's her with some nuns and he notices another figure in the shadows. It's the nun from Conjuring 2, the nun who is rumoured to be having her own spin-off film. Outside, everyone except Janice, is trying to enjoy but Linda isn't really wanted and they tell her to go and hide and they will find her. She gets under the stair and soon hears a noise, turns around and the doll is staring at her, before being dragged backwards by two creature like hands. One night, the two oldest are trying to scare each other, with stories, underneath blanket. Beyond the sheet they notice a figure, and once they notice it has gone, a hand grabs one of their heads causing them to scream. The figure was wearing half a mask on their face, like a doll's face. The father of the house walks in after the screaming, along with the nun and he instantly dismisses their theory that the girls seen his wife in their room. He explains that she hasn't walked in years. They are clearly shook up by the encounter, as the next day they are approached by Linda and refuse to talk about it. Mainly focusing its attentions on Janice, she has once again found herself going into Annabelle's room after hearing music playing. She sees the young daughter standing near the window, and talks to her, asking what she wants. Her reflection shows her face staring ahead but as she turns around, her face turns black, yellow eyes and a deep, demon voice shouts, 'Your Soul'. She attempts to escape to downstairs by using the chair lift. As she travels down though, the demon reverses it and she is slowly driving back up top. As she sits, unknowing what to do, black hands grab her and take her to the ceiling. Dropping her on the ground and leaving her passed out. She wakes, severely crippled and placed into a wheelchair. We are seeing a lot more of this demonic presence compared to the other movies. Not just in its actions, but the actual black figure.
Janice is wheeled outside by Charlotte and enjoys the sun until a figure, dressed as the Sister, pushes her towards the old dollmaker's barn. You can see that the hands look dead and the plan is complete as she crashes into the barn. She tried to get back into the chair but it's thrown away from her by an invisible force and in the back, is a wardrobe that is trying to open. She crawls under the floor boards, only to find the ghost daughter under there, who holds her down and spews black liquid into Janice's mouth. A move which we have seen in other horror films regarding possession. Once the other break into the barn to help Janice, she is sitting in her chair, acting normal to an extent but clearly things are right. Linda notices that things have changed between her and Janice's friendship, knowing that he best friend has changed too. Sitting on the porch, she admits to Samuel about the doll and breaking into the room and he goes crazy. Knowing that shit is about to go down. He leaves that night and stays away until the morning but when he comes back, he's carving a cross out of wood in the dining room. Janice wheels, up, stands up and Samuel recognises that this isn't the girl anymore. The cross is torn from his hand and he's later found dead, seemingly drained and left in the room. That night Linda takes action and steals the doll from a sleeping Janice. He heads outside and throws it down into the well outside. Sister Charlotte follows her and doesn't stop her actions but when the girl is nearly dragged down into the well but white, dirty hands, she knows all is not well. Back into the house and Janice has disappeared into Bee's room. The doll is back too and Linda heads to bed. She throws a ball into the corridor which is gripped by something so she runs onto the top bunk as something runs onto the bottom. There are black footprints leading the way but she manages to drop off to sleep.
Finally, Sister Charlotte heads into the room with Esther Mullins to ask what is happening, she brings the doll for a scare factor too. We are sent into flashbacks as the mother explains that she asked for her daughter back, in any way possible. After a few glimpses and the music playing in her room, they knew that it wasn't really their daughter. It asked permission to live inside the doll. It started becoming a bit more aggressive too and finally Esther tried to calm it, walking into her room with a cross and bible, hoping that it would leave. The create grew in size, with long black arms and legs, a disfigured body and full demon noises, before turning on Esther and gouging her eye out. This is the reason for the mask and the flash back ends with her taking off the mask itself. The sister knows they are in trouble so wants to get the girls out. Knowing this, a possessed Janice plans on stopping it. She lifts Charlotte up and slams her into a wall, knocking her out before turning her attention on Linda. She makes it into the small lift, with the usual scene of it being dragged up and down the shaft. Outside the older girls make it into the car and in the distance, we can see the scarecrow that they earlier made fun of. It's slowly moving every time that they turn the engine over and the headlights turn on. A fight commences inside the barn, where once again the scarecrow is pinned to the wall, but its clothes begin to ruffle as the black demon grows out of them. In one darker scene, we see the demon lower itself from the ceiling rafters before the girls can escape back to the car. Every room is revisited and Esther is ripped in half, attached to the wall, just like the scarecrow outside and Linda gets out of the lift into the room, only for the torso to chase her along the floor. Linda is now in Bee's room with the doll in the closet, the Sister is back to help Linda out and locks Janice in the closet too. Others ring the police and once they arrive to check everything out, Janice has escaped through a hole in the wall. She's know full on crazy. They remove the doll as evidence.
We are in an orphanage in Santa Monica now, a happy looking place and a couple are led to a room to meet someone they are adopting. It's Janice and she is now going under the name of Annabelle. Of course she is. The Higgins family take her in and 12 years later, Annabelle has set up a cult with her boyfriend. The murder her adoptive parents, which wakes up their neighbours, spiralling the story into the first Annabelle moving. A clever ending that answered questions for me. I thought that the doll was possessed from this woman crying blood into it, but clearly there was a longer creation in the works. The credits are filled with the doll turning its head to the audience but more importantly the Nun. Once again looking to link this into the universe in a big way. It's set in 1952 for this scene and the demon is called Valak.
This was a great addition to the universe and a lot better than the first Annabelle. It contained some great, fun and jumpy scenes which is the sign of a good horror but the most interesting thing was how much we seen the demon itself. I assumed it would be just a lot of the doll, someone being possessed and then things thrown about. Lulu Wilson was a standout as Linda and along with the other girls cast, it was a really good film that wasn't weird to watch considering so much of it didn't included a male character on screen. The set was old and creepy, the parents were shadows of their happy selves and Janice's roll of turning from a disabled, vulnerable girl, into a non-stop possessed machine was brilliant. Gore, suspense, twists and turns make this a prequel to help us forget about the first that was meant to be the prequel for the Conjuring movie. It sometimes relies on false scare too and the use of loud sounds but mainly, the audience knows when to expect something as the sound and music vanish altogether. We all know that this doll is creepy as shit but it's made to look this scary for the audience. The actual doll is a lot more normal and can be seen as a gift for 'Annabelle' at the end adoption. It gives me a need for more horror, another Conjuring and whatever else is in store from this group. Bring on Halloween to go out as Valak!
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