Annabelle (2014)
Certified: 15
Duration: 99 minutes
Directed by: John R. Leonetti
Starring: Annabelle Wallis, Ward Horton, Tony Amendola, Alfre Woodard, Kerry O’Malley, Brian Howe, Eric Ladin, Ivar Brogger, Tree O’Toole, Patrick Wilson
KRS Releasing Ltd

Having been made on a meagre €6.5 million budget and bringing in over €250 million in box office receipts, has made Annabelle a veritable cash cow.

The film is a direct prequel of the equally successful The Conjuring (2013). It is set in 1970s Santa Monica where John Gordon (Ward Horton) is set to start building a new life with his wife Mia (Annabelle Wallis) who is pregnant with their first baby. The couple is, however, neck deep in trouble when the problems of their neighbours seep into their lives.

Pete and Sharon Higgins (Brian Howe and Kerry O’Malley) clash with their daughter who joined a cult. When they end up murdered, the young woman and her boyfriend enter the Gordons’ home and attempt to kill Mia.

In the ensuing melee, people die and one of Mia’s prized dolls is sprayed with blood. Mia, who is still pregnant, starts going through a series of unnatural happenings. At one point they even move into a new home but the weirdness seems to follow them around like a ball and chain.

John is not happy with the doll. Mia starts to frequent Evelyn (Alfre Woodward), a neighbour who has a bookstore. She tries to get more information from Detective Clarkin (Eric Ladin) who tells her that the young woman had purportedly been trying to summon a demonic presence. Mia starts to believe that the demonic presence has already been summoned and that it is now hunting her baby.

Intervention and help is found in their priest Fr Perez (Tony Amendola) while matters start to escalate pretty quickly as the doll becomes more and more of a conduit of something otherworldly.

On the acting front, Wallis is at the centre of the film as Mia and she acquits herself well, delivering a more than believable core to the film. Woodward brings in some serious acting chops that go beyond the film’s scope.

The two leave Horton in the shade as they seem to hold the camera’s attention much better than him.

John R. Leonetti does not aim to make the new Exorcist. He is, however, aiming fair and square at jolting and shocking his audience out of their cinema seat. Leonetti, who is here on his third directing role and is more famous for his cinematography, knows how to set the situation, let the atmosphere take its hold and then place a well-timed and structured scare your way.

Annabelle is a devil doll kind of movie but it is more atmospheric than the likes of the classic Child’s Play (1988). In fact, Leonetti was the cinematographer on the third Chucky outing in 1991.

True to form, the film relies on the way it plays its hand and here the director excels in more ways than one. It is set in such a manner as to actually manage to make you jump even though you may be expecting the scares to be just right round the corner.

Leonetti takes simple settings and matters and gives them a frightening atmosphere without going over the top in the gore.

It’s not surprising that in 2016 horror fans will be treated to a sequel of The Conjuring, making this a franchise to look out for.