Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…….
Oh – sorry…..I fell asleep watching Annabelle and I think I just woke up. Let me go watch it again and I’ll get back to you with the review.
Ok – done! I know, I know….I’m about 2 weeks late with a review for this movie, but good things come to those who wait. Unfortunately, no good things came to me from watching this piece of crap and I’ll share my thoughts on that now.
For those who aren’t aware by now, Annabelle is a prequel to 2013’s amazing spookfest, The Conjuring, only it’s pretty far from amazing in it’s own right. What this movie is supposed to accomplish (besides being an obvious cash-grab by the studio) is to show the origin of how Annabelle the doll become inhabited by something evil. And there’s nothing more evil than some crazy murderous Charles Manson cult members to set things in motion.
I’m honestly going to keep the bulk of this review very brief. Annabelle becomes possessed when a psycho cult member bleeds onto her after smearing the cult’s symbol in blood on the wall before dying. A Brady Bunch type couple (Annabelle Wallis and Ward Horton) who’s house it happens in, decide to keep creepy-ass Annabelle and in addition are about to have a baby. In keeping with traditional horror cliches: Bad things happen, the baby is in danger, and the couple decide to still keep Annabelle in the house. A priest and book store owner (Tony Amendola and Alfre Woodard) who happen to specialize in the occult, cross paths with the couple and figure out a way to rid the doll of the evil.
The acting across the board is ok at best, but ok acting isn’t going to get Annabelle very far, especially when it’s the least of it’s worries. The Conjuring was ground-breaking horror filmmaking, and now it’s been tainted by this ‘so dumb it’s not good’ prequel that will most likely get another addition to the franchise because the masses ended up giving their money to it. I did happen to gain some insightful knowledge from the movie, so let’s end this review with the Top 5 Things I Learned After Watching Annabelle:
* This is the most screen time a sewing machine has ever gotten in a film
* Jiffy Pop popcorn needs to make a comeback
* Annabelle doesn’t like listening to baseball games on the radio
* Watching your baby almost get hit by falling books is truly terrifying
* Rocking chair sales should skyrocket after this movie
(1 1/2 out of 5)
I’m a horror movie fan – I’m a fan of the original evil dead trilogy to Romero to Poltergeist, korean horror, french horror etc… I’m also a fan of the new wave of horror. I’m a fan of the Conjuring as it was a film that made me think the art of a horror movie is back.
First off… this isn’t made by James Wan… it’s made by it’s filmographer so off of the bat you’re probably going to get some cool scenes but perhaps lack of character development. The budget of Annabelle is $5 million (that’s 1/4 of what the Conjuring cost). Let me tell you the script is the weakest part of this film.
The movie starts off slow… this is where the film should really get you into the characters but there isn’t much here, it’s generic. It’s the weakest part of the film. You have your standard couple… man goes to work, woman stays home and experiences weird stuff. The problem with this is that it’s hard for you to bother to relate to the characters. This kind of kills the film for me. There were actually a lot that could have been explored but they didn’t touch like the kids in the apartment.
Now the good. There is very little CGI – perhaps none. It’s all old school. This is something that anyone could actually film…. chair moving, oven is on, someone standing there. It’s good. It works. There’s a great scene here with a baby. Are there enough scares? Not really. The pay off for the film felt like they might have fixed the movie for censors but even though the film is Rated R.
There’s a lot missing in this film. It’s not horrible. It’s worth a rental. It’s your average horror movie.