Annabelle

It's a possessed doll so of course it's scary.

Director: John R Leonetti
Writer: Gary Dauberman
Runtime: 99 Minutes

Plot: A young couple experience some supernatural shit after the daughter of their neighbours is taken in by a cult, kills her parents and tries to kill them, failing to do so she kills herself and possesses a doll, ultimately forcing the young woman to make a terrible choice.

It's a dumb film. There are so many points where you think it's gonna be cool and you're going to love what you've seen and then it just manages to go back and unravel what it's done. This was a terrible start to spooky month and I don't know why I didn't just watch Creepshow or something first. The acting isn't good, the scares are cheap, the creepy doll was creepy before it got possessed soooo....let's just get into this shit.

So first, the acting is crap. The actors are attractive enough to bring in an audience based on "oh he's so cute", "oh she's gorgeous" but outside of that, they have no chemistry, are more boring than the smell of wet cardboard and are putting way too much effort into whatever it is they're trying to do. I will say that the writing has a severe impact on the way that Ward Horton and Annabelle Wallis deliver their performances but damn, they tried too hard for this to sound like a real conversation but there is no way that could be possible. Own that cheesy-ness and you'll have a better movie.

Second, the characters make some dumb decisions. First John (Ward) buys a doll and says that they will be behind on the rent for a while which if you knew you would struggle financially once you bought that thing, why buy it? You have a baby on the way dude, don't make dumb financial decisions like this. Then, when Mia (Annabelle) decides she doesn't want the doll anymore due to everything that went down which, y'know, a crazy cult lady comes in and tries to kill you and your unborn baby, then dies holding that doll, you're not gonna want that thing anywhere near you. The problem with her wanting it gone is that John decides to just trash it. If that thing cost as much as he implied it did, I'd demand that shit got sold for his money back or at least a fraction of it. Maybe he wouldn't have had a lot of interest in it but...it's an apparently very rare item and will always have interest.

The scares in this film, as I mentioned before, are so cheap. Count how many times a door closes or there's a jump scare. I don't even mind jumpscares in a film, but I think it's just a little too easy to do to get a reaction from an audience. And personally, I don't think seeing a door open/close all by itself is even scary. We know this is a scary film, we know there's a demon or whatever so why does it constantly close doors? How is this scary? How does it build tension? It doesn't and it's stupid and it's gotta stop.

Finally I'm just gonna talk about the actual Annabelle doll and how this movie version are nothing like each other. The real doll is actually a Raggedy Ann doll and while I completely understand why they couldn't use a Raggedy Ann, why would the people behind that creation want their product to be involved in a series about demons and cults? I know I wouldn't. So faced with this problem, the design team needed to create something from scratch and they came up with something that was absolutely nothing like the original. This doll is already piss yourself scary and it makes a person wonder why anybody would buy it, whether it be in it's clean, new condition or whether it be the absolutely fucked version at the end. They could have at least made it look more...innocent.

I dunno, I can't really find anything that great in this, the only thing that really stands out is the basement scene in which Mia is trapped in some seemingly alternate dimension where she can't escape the basement and honestly, it's a pretty good scene. Builds tension nicely and gets you on the edge of your seat. Shame it's in this movie where literally everything else sucks.

But that's it, I know this is a fairly underwhelming start to spooky month, I was thinking about just posting my IT review to start it off but I just had to get it out there. I promise the rest of this month will be better and, enjoy spooky month pals. Peace out, stay hydrated and bye.

This is just my opinion and if you disagree then that's great, I'm open to discussion and I'm always interested to hear how you feel about this film. This is also a critique which is considered "Fair Use" under the Copyright Act 1976. If you like this film then go and support its creators by buying the DVD or Bluray.