Annabelle: Creation (2017) is the best horror movie in The Conjuring franchise, in part because director David Sandberg has shown some talent for scares here and in Light's Out (2016). Many of its flaws come from the efforts of the producers to hammer the movie into the pre-existing Annabelle timeline created by the first Conjuring movie and the first Annabelle movie. This leads to an open ending and a coda that's ridiculous if one has seen Annabelle and confusing if one hasn't. Oh, well.
Anthony LaPaglia and Miranda Otto look very... glum as two of the three major adult characters. Stephanie Sigman is a lot more energized as a loveable nun. The child and teen actors are all fairly solid as Catholic orphans who get to live in a country house some time in the 1950's, a house that has the demonic doll Annabelle hanging out in a locked room.
That room will not stay locked, folks! Even though it's wall-papered in pages from The Bible!
Not that it really matters if the door stays locked. Annabelle has some pretty terrific teleportational powers to go along with her atypical (for a doll) mobility. That she was supposed to be a children's doll innocent of all evil when created has always struck me as hilarious: she's clearly meant to scare any child with the misfortune to receive her. Anthony LaPaglia is cast here as her doll-making creator, so it's his fault. His... and THE DEVIL's !!! I think. On the bright side, tragedy stops LaPaglia from making more than one Annabelle: she was originally supposed to be one of a hundred.
There are some decent scares, a lot of improbable character moments, and a genuine feeling of tragedy attached to one of the children, polio-stricken Janice. There's a genuinely eerie-looking scarecrow. There are a lot of jump scares. Really, Annabelle can only teleport if her unexpected new location creates a jump scare.
The makers of the film indulge way too much in one of my new Horror Don'ts: Don't give your ghostly or demonic presence X-Man-level telekinetic abilities. If you do decide to go down this route, use those powers sparingly. Perhaps only once in your movie. And even then, maybe off-screen. A demon who rampages around like the Hulk isn't scary after about ten seconds. It's goddam stupid. If you want to make a superhero movie, have your telekinetic wundergeist get into a Jedi battle with the bulldozing snooze that was the rebooted Blair Witch and the escalating Sith-like forces of evil in every Paranormal Activity movie after the first one.
Oh, well. Boy, Anthony LaPaglia looks pissed off at being in this movie, though. Lightly recommended.
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