Annabelle

Annabelle wants to ride the success of The Conjuring, but ends up missing everything that made it work. Where The Conjuring had heart, atmosphere, and characters we cared about, Annabelle feels empty - a horror movie that goes through the motions.

There's no meaningful character design, no suspenseful buildup, and almost zero emotional connection to the central couple.

The plot is thin, the mystery is practically nonexistent, and the scares rely entirely on loud stingers and shadowy figures popping up on cue.

It feels like the filmmakers knew the story wasn't strong enough, so they overloaded it with cheap jump scares to keep audiences alert. But without tension or stakes, those scares don't land - they just get repetitive.

Annabelle has the creepy doll, sure, but without compelling storytelling, it's just a prop in a movie that forgets to build anything around it.

Let me start off by stating that as a devout Horror fan with a special liking to ghost stories, haunts and exorcisms, I have really enjoyed The Conjuring. Therefore, my anticipation towards this pseudo- prequel is to be understood, as well as my disappointment...

Perhaps it was the fact that James Wan was only an executive producer of this film that has made it wreak of mediocrity, especially compared to the first. Most of this film's components are exactly that: mediocre. The acting lacked the charisma and screen presence of Patrick Wilson (Ed Warren in The Conjuring), though I must say that Alfre Woodard (Evelyn) and Tony Amendola (Father Perez) were certain light spots. The story feels like it came out of an automated template machine given the basic "create me a mediocre haunting story" order, and again, compared to The Conjuring simply doesn't make the cut.

So why the slightly generous rating? For a few reasons:

1) Say what you will, that doll is one of the scariest, creepiest and most horrifying things I have ever seen both on screen and in life. Whoever created that doll's exterior should be either given a reward for being a genius or committed to a mental ward for being sick in the head (and I say that with the utmost respect, that doll is a work of art). Unlike The Conjuring, Annabelle gives the doll a lot more well deserved screen time.

2) The cinematography is at its best with the quick shots, giving the audience sometimes less than a second to realize what they're seeing. Showing demons, ghosts and such evil presences in that manner really adds to the fear factor in my opinion, for Hollywood is yet to realize how to portrait a demon that is scary for those of us who aren't religious Christians (and I say that with no disrespect whatsoever to Christians or Christianity). I like to use Insidious (another Wanderful masterpiece, if you haven't seen it stop reading RIGHT NOW and go see it) as an example - the one thing really lowering that excellent film's level is the demon shown there. In Annabelle, demons are shown, but for a snap shot, leaving much to imagination which serves to add to the scare gauage.

3) Plot actually gets pretty intense towards the end, but only towards the end.

So all in all, perhaps had I watched this film before The Conjuring I would have been able to be more objective, but seeing as how I am unable to ignore it's shortcomings - I give it 6.5, meaning you should definitely watch it (especially if you liked The Conjuring) but you shouldn't expect it to meet The Conjuring's level.

Supernatural horror with plenty of strange phenomena and creepy events when a terrible doll is awakened. In 1970, John and Mia Gordon (Ward Horton and Annabelle Wallis) are expecting their first child. At church, the couple talks to their neighbors, the Higgins' (Brian Howe and Kerry O'Malley), over baby names. John is obviously nervous and not completely ready for it, even commenting on that to Mia. She is upset by his attitude toward the pregnancy, but he apologizes to her and gives her a doll that she's been trying to find for ages. Mia loves it and puts it with the rest of her dolls. Then unfortunate accidents take place with Annabelle, an evil spirit trapped in a doll .The Next Chapter In The Conjuring Universe ! . You don't know the real story!. Welcome to the home of The Conjuring Universe !. Possess them all ! . Don't go alone !. Before The Conjuring there was Annabelle!. Spilled blood and terror are not all they leave behind!. Determined to keep Annabelle from wreaking more havoc !.

Eerie events in which a marriage starts to experience terrifying supernatural occurrences involving a vintage doll and other ghastly appearances that violently attack them .This is a fantasy movie that contains restless horror as the doomed doll kept in an exorcited room with warning signs, then horror emerges and threatening beings attack . The film starts with the same opening scene of the film "The Conjuring", in which two young women and a young man are telling Ed and Lorraine Warren about their experience with the doll that they believe to be haunted, known as Annabelle.

First movie in the Annabelle film series into The Conjuring Universe well produced by Walter Hamada, Hans Ritter, Peter Safran and James Wan. This first Anabelle (2014) is based on the weird characters created by Gary Dauberman and blending in the Conjuring universe , in fact it takes place at an apartment after a terrrible accident and the subsequent apperance of the eerie doll Annabelle. Tension , creepy atmosphere , genuine chills, intrigue are continued and appearing lurking and menacing into dining room, stairs , hallway and rooms. Great loads of screams , shocks , exploitation and terror abound with the usual poltergeister phenomena caused by the horrible ghosts. It's recreated with magnificent make-up and high grade plethora of special effects which are very frightening, and while horrifying the stunned spectator when the family begins to experience terrifying supernatural occurrences involving the vintage doll . Stars Annabelle Wallis and Ward Horton giving fine acting as the young couple, along with the veterans Alfre Woodward and Tony Amendola as the priest who helps them, remaining secondary cast are hardly ever known. It displays chilling musical score by composer Joseph Bishara creating a spooky and sinister atmosphere. Likewise, dark as well atmospheric cinematography by cameraman James Kniest.

The motion picture was professionally directed John Leonetti. He is a prestigious director of photography , brother of cameraman Matthew F. Leonetti , and member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) since 2003, known for The Woods (2006) , Super hybrid , Piranha 3D, Ca$h ,Dead Silence , Scorpion King , Honey , Warren: The Conjuring (2013) and Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013). And directing some films and TV series , such as : Butterfly effect 2 , The Silence , Sleepy Hollow series , Wolves at the Door , Lullaby , Mortal Combat and Annabelle (2014) . Annabelle belongs to Annabelle trilogy formed by ¨Annabelle¨ (2014) by John R Leonetti with Annabelle Wallis , Tony Amendola , Alfre Woodard ,Ward Horton ; ¨Annabelle Comes Home¨ (2019) by Gary Dauberman with Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson and ¨Annabelle : Creation¨ (2017) written by Gary Dauberman, directed by David F. Sandberg with Anthony LaPlaglia, Miranda Otto, Stephanie Sigman. The latter is a prequel dealing with a doll-maker and his wife welcome a nun and several little girls from a shuttered orphanage into their home , where they become the target of the doll-maker's possessed creation, The creator of the saga is Gary Dauberman, an American screenwriter who is best known for writing The Conjuring Universe spin-off horror films Annabelle, Annabelle: Creation and The Nun, and co-writing the 2017 film adaptation of IT, based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King. Annabelle, Rating : 5.5/10, passable terror movie that will appeal to horror buffs and Annabelle saga fans .

Re-watched this one recently and now I remember why it didn't really leave an impression like it's sequels. as the first of the trilogy it had the burden of building the characters and world up, which it failed to do. none of the characters felt fleshed out, leaving the viewer to not really care what happens to any of them. for most of the film you feel as if you're watching a slice of life film instead of a horror one. it finally starts to pickup halfway through the film although the ending doesn't really feel earned and the conflict happens and dies out too quickly as if it remembered it had to happen. the second film did a way better job at being a spin-off film for this important entity of The Conjuring universe.

Horror is one of my favorite movie genres. I really wasn't expecting to hate this as much as I did but it is astonishingly terrible. Really. I loved The Conjuring - this is nothing like The Conjuring. At all. It's a blatant cash-grab and a terrible one at that.

There is zero tension throughout this movie. Zero suspense. Everything is reliant on close ups of the dolls face to "creep" us out and really long periods of time where NOTHING HAPPENS. Literally, it's about this couple that we do not care about and their stupid problems which we care even less about. I don't know if they were trying to build suspense in these scenes but in order to build suspense you actually have to care about the characters. Or at least have, you know, suspense; a lingering sense of danger. This had nothing. And holy hell that ending.

The positives of this movie: The lead girl is beautiful. She's easy to look at. The soundtrack is pretty cool too. That's it. The characters are horrendous and the acting is even worse. Seriously if you're going to make a movie this awful at least have the decency to take an acting lesson or two. It's a dreadful watch. Please, don't waste your time with this cash grab sh*t stain. Don't give them the satisfaction. Watch something good like Sinister or 1408 - haunting movies done right.