I'll admit that I don't like the average, typical horror movie. I find most of them to be generic, regurgitated jump-scare fests that forego any semblance of storytelling or good writing for cheap thrills and loud sounds. I am, however a fan of a few of the "horror renaissance" movies that have become popular in recent years. It's an obvious namedrop, but I found The VVitch to be excellent precisely because of it's focus on atmosphere and its ability to encourage the audience to think, and not rely solely on jump scares for entertainment. I didn't expect Annabelle: Creation to be that. Of course not. I did, however read some of the good reviews and thought, "what the heck, I'll take a flier on it," despite finding director David Sandberg's other feature "Lights Out" to be rather silly and mediocre.
Sad to say, all Annabelle: Creation delivered was more of the same tired tropes that have been plaguing average horror movies for the better part of 20 years. To put it simply, the entire final hour of this film consists of the "plot" forcing the dumb and pointless characters from one contrived setpiece to the next, all while typical haunted house jump-scares and loud noises attack the audience at every turn.
I'll quickly address what I did enjoy about this film. The first half-hour or so is watchable. Some of it is actually very well done. It does its job, setting up a good atmosphere around this gritty, creepy 1950s farmhouse and the darkness surrounding it and the husband and wife continuing to live their after the death of their daughter. I understand that a lot of this is also your run-of-the- mill horror setup, but I like that it takes its time, and demands at least a little bit of patience from the audience while it focuses on said atmosphere. For a little while, I actually thought that the movie knew what it was doing. This is capped off with a great slow- burn of a scene in which the main character and one of the orphan girls, Janice, releases the demon from its closet prison. The scene takes its time, is well- shot, and has some deeply unsettling moments, culminating with - not a jump scare or a monster popping out as the tension increases - but with more of an anti-scare, as the sheet falls off the doll, revealing that it's not actually there. It's a great scene that actually opens up possibilities of other psychological elements being in play for Janice. But guess what? From here, the movie throws it all right out the window.
From this point on, it feels like the filmmakers remembered the 100 jump-scare quota that the studio required them to hit, and just decided to cram it all into the final hour. It feels like a different movie from here. I'll try to avoid talking incessantly about the jump- scares, but it bears repeating that from this point on, every other scene I criticize has too many jump-scares in addition to the other problems. Every one.
First off, the demon's powers in this movie are ridiculous and inconsistent with what the plot needs. In addition to the doll itself, which is just its conduit, it can seemingly possess anyone it gets its hands on (which is somehow only Janice), as well as any inanimate object it so desires. It can also manifest its own demonic presence anywhere it wishes, at any time. It can turn invisible whenever it wants, teleport itself or the doll (and presumably other objects) to anywhere else at will, and also has telekinesis. Yep. How anyone survives more than five minutes against what is basically a god can only be explained by the demon being grossly incompetent with its own powers, or by it not wanting to kill any one else (other than the parents, which it does kill, with ease), in which case this is all pointless. Either way, who even cares at this point?
Scenes that could be decent atmospheric scenes are ruined by this terrible power paradox and the filmmakers needing to cram sounds into every possible void. An otherwise well shot scene of one of the girls running the doll out to drop into the well is ruined by these flaws. The scene works just fine with her anxiously looking off into the empty fields, then back at the house, as she quickly tries to make it to the well. This would build the scene perfectly. But no, we can't have 30 seconds of good tension anymore. Gotta edit in loud, obnoxious footsteps following the character that comically cease when she turns around. It's like an episode of Scooby Doo. And really, what's the point? The demon gets off on scaring little orphan girls and doing nothing else? Why am I still watching?
My favorite bit of ridiculousness is when Janice gets possessed (check that off on your horror bingo board) and turns from a sickly, shy, scared young girl into a walking, grinning, sarcastic maniac that cares more about delivering clever one-liners than doing anything of importance. It's as though she's not possessed by a demon, but by an MCU cast-member as she tries to deliver stupid mic- dropping lines while slowly chasing people through the house and doing nothing. Possessed Janice dicks around while other pointless characters get scared by a possessed scarecrow, while another girl gets scared by a possessed dismembered torso, while the audience gets scared by their life choices. Each of these scenes is, again, saturated with endless loud bangs and monsters assaulting the screen. In the end, nothing happens. The last hour is generic trash. It gets tied into the first Annabelle movie, which is somehow supposed to be worse than this? I won't be finding out.
Sad to say, all Annabelle: Creation delivered was more of the same tired tropes that have been plaguing average horror movies for the better part of 20 years. To put it simply, the entire final hour of this film consists of the "plot" forcing the dumb and pointless characters from one contrived setpiece to the next, all while typical haunted house jump-scares and loud noises attack the audience at every turn.
I'll quickly address what I did enjoy about this film. The first half-hour or so is watchable. Some of it is actually very well done. It does its job, setting up a good atmosphere around this gritty, creepy 1950s farmhouse and the darkness surrounding it and the husband and wife continuing to live their after the death of their daughter. I understand that a lot of this is also your run-of-the- mill horror setup, but I like that it takes its time, and demands at least a little bit of patience from the audience while it focuses on said atmosphere. For a little while, I actually thought that the movie knew what it was doing. This is capped off with a great slow- burn of a scene in which the main character and one of the orphan girls, Janice, releases the demon from its closet prison. The scene takes its time, is well- shot, and has some deeply unsettling moments, culminating with - not a jump scare or a monster popping out as the tension increases - but with more of an anti-scare, as the sheet falls off the doll, revealing that it's not actually there. It's a great scene that actually opens up possibilities of other psychological elements being in play for Janice. But guess what? From here, the movie throws it all right out the window.
From this point on, it feels like the filmmakers remembered the 100 jump-scare quota that the studio required them to hit, and just decided to cram it all into the final hour. It feels like a different movie from here. I'll try to avoid talking incessantly about the jump- scares, but it bears repeating that from this point on, every other scene I criticize has too many jump-scares in addition to the other problems. Every one.
First off, the demon's powers in this movie are ridiculous and inconsistent with what the plot needs. In addition to the doll itself, which is just its conduit, it can seemingly possess anyone it gets its hands on (which is somehow only Janice), as well as any inanimate object it so desires. It can also manifest its own demonic presence anywhere it wishes, at any time. It can turn invisible whenever it wants, teleport itself or the doll (and presumably other objects) to anywhere else at will, and also has telekinesis. Yep. How anyone survives more than five minutes against what is basically a god can only be explained by the demon being grossly incompetent with its own powers, or by it not wanting to kill any one else (other than the parents, which it does kill, with ease), in which case this is all pointless. Either way, who even cares at this point?
Scenes that could be decent atmospheric scenes are ruined by this terrible power paradox and the filmmakers needing to cram sounds into every possible void. An otherwise well shot scene of one of the girls running the doll out to drop into the well is ruined by these flaws. The scene works just fine with her anxiously looking off into the empty fields, then back at the house, as she quickly tries to make it to the well. This would build the scene perfectly. But no, we can't have 30 seconds of good tension anymore. Gotta edit in loud, obnoxious footsteps following the character that comically cease when she turns around. It's like an episode of Scooby Doo. And really, what's the point? The demon gets off on scaring little orphan girls and doing nothing else? Why am I still watching?
My favorite bit of ridiculousness is when Janice gets possessed (check that off on your horror bingo board) and turns from a sickly, shy, scared young girl into a walking, grinning, sarcastic maniac that cares more about delivering clever one-liners than doing anything of importance. It's as though she's not possessed by a demon, but by an MCU cast-member as she tries to deliver stupid mic- dropping lines while slowly chasing people through the house and doing nothing. Possessed Janice dicks around while other pointless characters get scared by a possessed scarecrow, while another girl gets scared by a possessed dismembered torso, while the audience gets scared by their life choices. Each of these scenes is, again, saturated with endless loud bangs and monsters assaulting the screen. In the end, nothing happens. The last hour is generic trash. It gets tied into the first Annabelle movie, which is somehow supposed to be worse than this? I won't be finding out.