Annabelle

As a prequel and spin-off of The Conjuring – 2013's highly effective horror film – Annabelle does what it promises, even if it does so one jump and one jolt at a time. But that's all you get, jumpy scenes done to perfection, with little or no atmosphere and a story that disintegrates before it reaches a satisfying conclusion.

One of the most important aspects of The Conjuring and older sibling Insidious (both films directed by James Wan), is the cinematography and how it wreaks havoc with the viewer's peripheral vision. By this I am referring to events occurring off-center, or in some corner of the screen that is oblivious to on-screen characters but very obvious to the viewer. Consider a scene where a mother watches over her new born baby. The scene is shot in the living room where the right half of the frame is composed of the mother and her baby and the left half is a hallway that leads to other rooms in the house. Without shifting focus from the mother and child, we see something or someone lurking in the hallway behind; something that shouldn't be there in the first place. While this tactic is nothing new to horror-thrillers, it works for the whole purpose of inducing dread, thick and slow, before the actual jolt hits a few seconds later. The scariest scenes in Annabelle are made up of these moments, and at times we are left guessing what lurks in the corners. And is probably why cinematographer John R Leonetti of those preceding films is tasked with directorial duties in this film, while Wan himself is bumped up to producer. Leonetti plays it safe by treading down Wan's beaten path but without any surprises of his own.

Playing the aforementioned mother is Annabelle Wallis (freaky coincidence?) as Mia Gordon. Mia has a doll collection, one of which is the titular vintage doll gifted by her medical student husband John (Ward Horton). After surviving a horrific attack from a satanic cult, the Gordons have new guests that won't leave. At first Mia starts seeing things and becomes increasingly paralysed by fear while John begins to doubt her sanity. It's a stock approach to crying wolf in horror movies. It takes a while to dawn on them that something has latched on to Annabelle, making the doll a conduit with increasing intent on harming them and their new born baby. Consultations with a librarian and a priest reveal far greater implications, thus leaving these young parents to ward off hell by going right through it.

On one hand, the look and feel in this film is a copy-paste version of Insidious, but concentrated with sporadic moments of numbing fright. We've seen it before in classic horror films – young parents who must literally go through hell to save their child's soul. It's the same concept here but effective enough for a low budget horror film. Like a stern disciple, Leonetti is on par with Wan's technical approach. Cinematography, hair raising sound design (including deliberate moments without sound), and some decent tension will garner a few screams from the audience, but that's about it. On the downside, there isn't much of a story for a script based on real events and don't even expect anything along the lines of an animated 'Çhucky' doll. It's not about what the doll can do but about what's in the doll -If only they had built on that frame of thought. After some well-timed jump scares in the first half, all we are left with is a murky conclusion owing to underwritten supporting cast members whose inclusion leaves the ending stale and cheap.

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 .

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.

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.

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.