Annabelle: Creation (Film Review)

2017 Warner Bros. Pictures
Directed by: David F. Sandberg; Written by: Gary Dauberman
Starring: Stephanie Sigman, Talitha Bateman, Anthony LaPaglia, and Miranda Otto
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 110 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 8/10

A group of young, female orphans, along with a caretaker nun, are sent to a remote home in the hills of the high American desert. The house belongs to an old doll-maker and his wife, who lost their seven year-old daughter, Annabelle, in a tragic accident many years before. Most of of the girls enjoy the change of scenery, but Janice, who walks with a cane as the result of polio, is having a harder time. 

Something is communicating with Janice. 

Something spiritual. 

Something evil. 

Something centered around a doll in the closet in Annabelle's old room...a room the master of the house told Janice she should step foot in under no circumstance...EVER.

*    *     *

Things that go bump in the night. The feeling that something terrible is standing right behind you. Someone getting into the bottom bunk when you're on top, and no one else is home. Something making noise upstairs when everyone who should be in the house is downstairs. Inanimate objects somehow moving around the room when you've turned your head. 2017's Annabelle: Creation distills every childhood terror imaginable into image after memory-searing image. Director, David F. Sandberg, coming off the surprise success of 2016's Light Out, is absolutely at the top of his game here, stretching his imagination to provide unique and effective visuals that prey on those childhood fears. With children as his protagonists...and victims, that fear is heightened all the more.
Annabelle: Creation isn't perfect. Once the nature of the evil in the doll is revealed, the logic that the doll was left where it was and that children were invited into a home containing it is...pretty tenuous. A tacked on moment at the end, which connects this film to the previous Annabelle film (of which this is a prequel), ruins the emotional flow of the ending, and feels extraneous and confusing for those who've skipped that weaker film for this much stronger one. Overall, though, Annabelle: Creation is a standout entry in the larger Conjuring film series. The tension is heightened by the fact that the usual heroes of the series, the righteous, evil-fighting Ed and Lorraine Warren, aren't here to bust through the door, denounce the demonic forces in the name of Christ, and authoritatively cast them out. These poor, hapless kids, along with their young nun caretaker--who is inexperienced and much spiritually weaker than the Warrens--are all alone. That sense of helpless dread in isolation enhances the terror all the more. Whether you're a fan of this series or not, even if you've not seen a single Conjuring film, if you're a horror fan, particularly a supernatural horror fan, you owe it to yourself to give Annabelle: Creation a lights off, shutters drawn watch.