Annabelle: Creation

Annabelle: Creation (2017)

68% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 142 reviews)

Runtime: 109 minutes

Directed by: David F. Sandberg

Starring: Anthony LaPaglia, Lulu Wilson, Talitha Eliana Bateman, Stephanie Sigman, Miranda Otto

From: Warner Brothers/New Line Cinema

Wednesday night, I went to a drive-in and I saw It then this motion picture; an appropriate double-bill, and not just because of genre or them sharing production companies. I thought this was fine, although “audience fatigue” may play a part in my rating.

This movie has made a lot of money worldwide so I imagine I don't need to spend too much time describing the plot; I'll just mention that most of it is set in 1955 and a big spooky house in the middle of nowhere plays host to several girls of various ages (including teenagers) as they are all orphans and their orphanage just closed down. The Annabelle doll is there and I don't know if it needed a backstory, but that's what we got and even though it's not the most original explanation, you do understand why those people would do those things.

Maybe I am fatigued at how so many wide release horror movies in at least the past few years seem awfully similar to each other: it's some mix of ghosts/possession/demons and there are plenty of cheap jump scares. This falls right into that category. Hell, many of these films just seem so similar in general, and that's not even factoring in how this obviously fits into The Conjuring universe... and I rate those two main films pretty highly.

All that said, I can still say this was fine. I haven't seen Lights Out but David F. Sandberg did a nice job directing this. The cast was at least pretty competent and the two little girls who are the crux of the focus both acted well. This was a positive example of using silence in a horror film to make it more chilling or make you feel more on edge; that happens sometimes and it was effective. Another positive was how on a few occasions, it played with expectations and did the opposite of what you expected to be a rehash of something, even if it was from a movie many years old.


The positives, there being enough creepy moments and this notably being better than the poor first Annabelle movie means I can say this is fine.