Ok, firstly let me just say that I love supernatural horror and am eternally grateful to James Wan for creating this great universe with so many different characters. One of my biggest complaints these days is how easily a movie is classed as horror! Thrillers, rom-coms, comedies - throw a zombie or a bit of blood in and it's a "horror" film, but not for me. When I think of the best horror movies i've ever seen they all have some sort of supernatural element: Poltergeist, The Conjuring, The Evil Dead.... you see where i'm going with this, to me horror is supernatural and supernatural is horror.
Back to the movie, is it any good and does it hold a shine to the previous movies in the Conjuring franchise, well the answer is yes and no, Annabelle Creation is miles better than it's predecessor but not at the level of The Conjuring 1 or 2 but part of me feeling like that could be a case of seen it all before. Although there is nothing new with regards to the scares and the supernatural elements in the movie, David Sandberg does a great job of making sure it is all well done, and although very familiar it's still never boring. The movie starts with the Mullins family, the father is a local toymaker who specialises in dolls but following a tragic accident which left his daughter dead he and his wife now live a life of solitude, his wife never leaving her bedroom. 12 years on from the tragedy, they decide to offer their home as an orphanage to 6 young girls and the nun who is caring for them, it isn't long after the girls move in that things go bump in the night!
Talitha Bateman is great as Janice, the main object of Anabelle's affections and the rest of the cast are good, although some of the girls are slightly underused. Anthony La Paglia looks the part as the worn Samuel Mullins, it probably only took him ten minutes to learn his lines but his performance is based on mood rather than speech. The movie does have a bit of a slow start but it sets up so many possible jump scares that you can't help but look forward to the horror that awaits. We've got stair lifts, delivery shutes, a scary looking scare crow, one of those guns that shoots a ball on a rope and you wind back up - you just know all these things are going to be used to spooky effect at some point.
The jump scares do come thick and fast during the second half of the film, some work some don't but all in all it's a rollicking good time once it gets going, there is a nice little tie in with the first movie at the end and we also get a small mention of The Nun, soon to get her own movie. A good mix of The Conjuring, Child's Play 2 and Insidious give this movie a solid 3 1/2 out of 5
Back to the movie, is it any good and does it hold a shine to the previous movies in the Conjuring franchise, well the answer is yes and no, Annabelle Creation is miles better than it's predecessor but not at the level of The Conjuring 1 or 2 but part of me feeling like that could be a case of seen it all before. Although there is nothing new with regards to the scares and the supernatural elements in the movie, David Sandberg does a great job of making sure it is all well done, and although very familiar it's still never boring. The movie starts with the Mullins family, the father is a local toymaker who specialises in dolls but following a tragic accident which left his daughter dead he and his wife now live a life of solitude, his wife never leaving her bedroom. 12 years on from the tragedy, they decide to offer their home as an orphanage to 6 young girls and the nun who is caring for them, it isn't long after the girls move in that things go bump in the night!
Talitha Bateman is great as Janice, the main object of Anabelle's affections and the rest of the cast are good, although some of the girls are slightly underused. Anthony La Paglia looks the part as the worn Samuel Mullins, it probably only took him ten minutes to learn his lines but his performance is based on mood rather than speech. The movie does have a bit of a slow start but it sets up so many possible jump scares that you can't help but look forward to the horror that awaits. We've got stair lifts, delivery shutes, a scary looking scare crow, one of those guns that shoots a ball on a rope and you wind back up - you just know all these things are going to be used to spooky effect at some point.
The jump scares do come thick and fast during the second half of the film, some work some don't but all in all it's a rollicking good time once it gets going, there is a nice little tie in with the first movie at the end and we also get a small mention of The Nun, soon to get her own movie. A good mix of The Conjuring, Child's Play 2 and Insidious give this movie a solid 3 1/2 out of 5
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