Twelve years after the tragic death of their little girl, a doll-maker and his wife welcome a nun and several girls from a shuttered orphanage into their home, where they become the target of the doll-maker's possessed creation, Annabelle.
'Annabelle: Creation' Cast Presents an Exclusive Clip
From aboard the IMDboat at San Diego Comic-Con the cast of Annabelle: Creation introduce an exclusive clip from the film and talk about the terrors of shooting a horror film.
A prequel set before the haunting of the Lambert family that reveals how gifted psychic Elise Rainier reluctantly agrees to use her ability to contact the dead in order to help a teenage girl who has been targeted by a dangerous supernatural entity.
Parapsychologist Dr. Elise Rainier faces her most fearsome and personal haunting yet, as she is drawn back to her ghostly childhood home, where the terror began.
A priest with a haunted past and a novice on the threshold of her final vows are sent by the Vatican to investigate the death of a young nun in Romania and confront a malevolent force in the form of a demonic nun.
Director:
Corin Hardy
Stars:
Demián Bichir,
Taissa Farmiga,
Jonas Bloquet
Rebecca must unlock the terror behind her little brother's experiences that once tested her sanity, bringing her face to face with a supernatural spirit attached to their mother.
Director:
David F. Sandberg
Stars:
Teresa Palmer,
Gabriel Bateman,
Maria Bello
Washed-up true-crime writer Ellison Oswalt finds a box of super 8 home movies that suggest the murder he is currently researching is the work of a serial killer whose work dates back to the 1960s.
In the summer of 1989, a group of bullied kids band together to destroy a shape-shifting monster, which disguises itself as a clown and preys on the children of Derry, their small Maine town.
Director:
Andy Muschietti
Stars:
Bill Skarsgård,
Jaeden Martell,
Finn Wolfhard
The manufacturer of dolls Samuel Mullins is a happy family man with his wife Esther and their daughter Bee, who dies after being hit by a car. Twelve years later, Samuel and his wife, Esther, welcomes a nun and six orphaned girls to his home. He tells that only a locked room (that belonged to Bee) and Esther's room would be off limits for the girls. The crippled girl, Janice, manages to sneak in Bee's room during the night and finds a doll locked inside a closet. After she plays in the room, she is haunted by an evil force. What has Janice unleashed in Bee's room?Written by
Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
It is heavily implied that Samuel Mullins retired from his doll making career after the death of his daughter, which begs into question on what he has been doing for a living for the past 12 years between these events. See more »
Right after the end credits, there is a clip inside a dimly lit hall in Romania. You will notice that the candles will go out one by one and then the outline of the "Demon Nun" appears, as a teaser for The Nun (2018). See more »
The fourth entry in The Conjuring universe, Annabelle: Creation serves as a prequel to the 2014 spin-off titled Annabelle, which served as a prequel to the original Conjuring film. And considering the critical drubbing that Annabelle received, this film makes for a delightfully horrifying time. Twelve years after the death of their young daughter, a former dollmaker and his wife decide to let a group of six orphaned girls and a nun move into their home. The film primarily follows two of these girls, Janice and Linda. There, strange events begin to occur that eventually lead to the creation of the eponymous character. Director David F. Sandberg, who made his directorial debut last year with the micro-budget horror feature Lights Out, crafts an atmospheric thriller that genuinely surprised me. Despite the generally positive critical reception that Lights Out garnered, I was underwhelmed upon first viewing. Despite some inventive scares, the film failed to take full advantage of its premise. However, that isn't the case for Sandberg's latest.
Perhaps the film's most surprising attribute is the strong performances from the predominantly young cast, despite their relatively weak development. Lulu Wilson, who starred in another prequel-to-a-prequel (last year's Ouija: Origin of Evil) that received generally positive reviews, turns in a solid performance as the young Linda, who must contend with the haunting presence of the Annabelle doll manifesting itself into her best friend Janice. Wilson powers her way through any questionable character choices solely on the strength of her work. On the other hand, Talitha Bateman, playing the polio- afflicted Janice, handles her character's progression nicely, turning into a genuinely chilling presence as the film progresses. And despite being underutilized, Miranda Otto, who plays the Dollmaker's wife, gets some of the film's more shocking moments.
While Sandberg is a bit too content to play around with genre clichés (we get the requisite amount of scenes involving possession of inanimate objects, crucifixes, praying, and characters opening doors that they probably shouldn't have opened), the film's R-rating feels liberating. Considering that Lights Out was rated PG-13, a lot of its scares never reached full intensity as they were often obscured or otherwise cut short. Sandberg doesn't use the R-rating to deliver heapings of gore and blood, but instead to fashion the film into something that feels refreshingly more atmospheric and intense when compared to his previous work.
Indeed, Sandberg manages to (ahem) conjure up some shocking imagery as he uses some of these genre conventions in refreshing ways. In one particular scene, we painfully watch as an unseen entity breaks someone's fingers one-by-one as they clutch as a crucifix. This scene makes for one of the film's thrilling highlights, amplified by the atmosphere that Sandberg has established. Thankfully, Sandberg takes his time to establish these characters, refusing to rush into the scares without first making us care about who will be in the crosshairs. And we do care about these characters, especially Janice and Linda, whose friendship serves as the film's emotional core. While Sandberg unfortunately substitutes a bit of the build-up with a few cheap jump scares, by the end of the film the tension is palpable.
Additionally, one of the better aspects of Sandberg's film is that it just feels well-made. Obvious care went into making a believable period setting (the film is set sometime in the late '50s) and it shows through every frame of the film. Cinematographer Maxime Alexandre's camera work also surprised me. In particular, a long take early on in the film that shows the young girls running through the house upon arriving shows that Sandberg cares more about crafting a solid horror film than most of today's horror filmmakers. While Annabelle: Creation ultimately doesn't break any new ground or reach the high bar set by the film that inspired it, it still makes for a solid summer horror outing as the summer draws to a close. Featuring strong performances, a delightfully eerie atmosphere, and its fair share of scares, the film delivers on more of the potential that director David F. Sandberg exhibited on his debut feature. I will say, however, that I strongly dislike watching horror films with a big crowd. Keep the commentary to yourself, folks.
Rating: 7/10 (Good)
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The fourth entry in The Conjuring universe, Annabelle: Creation serves as a prequel to the 2014 spin-off titled Annabelle, which served as a prequel to the original Conjuring film. And considering the critical drubbing that Annabelle received, this film makes for a delightfully horrifying time. Twelve years after the death of their young daughter, a former dollmaker and his wife decide to let a group of six orphaned girls and a nun move into their home. The film primarily follows two of these girls, Janice and Linda. There, strange events begin to occur that eventually lead to the creation of the eponymous character. Director David F. Sandberg, who made his directorial debut last year with the micro-budget horror feature Lights Out, crafts an atmospheric thriller that genuinely surprised me. Despite the generally positive critical reception that Lights Out garnered, I was underwhelmed upon first viewing. Despite some inventive scares, the film failed to take full advantage of its premise. However, that isn't the case for Sandberg's latest.
Perhaps the film's most surprising attribute is the strong performances from the predominantly young cast, despite their relatively weak development. Lulu Wilson, who starred in another prequel-to-a-prequel (last year's Ouija: Origin of Evil) that received generally positive reviews, turns in a solid performance as the young Linda, who must contend with the haunting presence of the Annabelle doll manifesting itself into her best friend Janice. Wilson powers her way through any questionable character choices solely on the strength of her work. On the other hand, Talitha Bateman, playing the polio- afflicted Janice, handles her character's progression nicely, turning into a genuinely chilling presence as the film progresses. And despite being underutilized, Miranda Otto, who plays the Dollmaker's wife, gets some of the film's more shocking moments.
While Sandberg is a bit too content to play around with genre clichés (we get the requisite amount of scenes involving possession of inanimate objects, crucifixes, praying, and characters opening doors that they probably shouldn't have opened), the film's R-rating feels liberating. Considering that Lights Out was rated PG-13, a lot of its scares never reached full intensity as they were often obscured or otherwise cut short. Sandberg doesn't use the R-rating to deliver heapings of gore and blood, but instead to fashion the film into something that feels refreshingly more atmospheric and intense when compared to his previous work.
Indeed, Sandberg manages to (ahem) conjure up some shocking imagery as he uses some of these genre conventions in refreshing ways. In one particular scene, we painfully watch as an unseen entity breaks someone's fingers one-by-one as they clutch as a crucifix. This scene makes for one of the film's thrilling highlights, amplified by the atmosphere that Sandberg has established. Thankfully, Sandberg takes his time to establish these characters, refusing to rush into the scares without first making us care about who will be in the crosshairs. And we do care about these characters, especially Janice and Linda, whose friendship serves as the film's emotional core. While Sandberg unfortunately substitutes a bit of the build-up with a few cheap jump scares, by the end of the film the tension is palpable.
Additionally, one of the better aspects of Sandberg's film is that it just feels well-made. Obvious care went into making a believable period setting (the film is set sometime in the late '50s) and it shows through every frame of the film. Cinematographer Maxime Alexandre's camera work also surprised me. In particular, a long take early on in the film that shows the young girls running through the house upon arriving shows that Sandberg cares more about crafting a solid horror film than most of today's horror filmmakers. While Annabelle: Creation ultimately doesn't break any new ground or reach the high bar set by the film that inspired it, it still makes for a solid summer horror outing as the summer draws to a close. Featuring strong performances, a delightfully eerie atmosphere, and its fair share of scares, the film delivers on more of the potential that director David F. Sandberg exhibited on his debut feature. I will say, however, that I strongly dislike watching horror films with a big crowd. Keep the commentary to yourself, folks.
Rating: 7/10 (Good)