Written by Alessandra Sironi
I recommend that if you want a good laugh, go and watch “Annabelle.” If you’re looking for some horror this Halloween season, choose another movie.
“Annabelle” is a 2014 movie directed by John R. Leonetti, also known for producing 2013’s “The Conjuring.” In fact, Annabelle begins with a scene from “The Conjuring.”
“Annabelle” is a horror movie cliché. With the same eerie concept as “Chucky,” Annabelle is a seemingly innocent doll possessed by an evil demon.
“Annabelle” tells the story of a happily married couple expecting their first child. Mia (Annabelle Wallis) and her husband John (Ward Horton) are what you would probably call the perfect couple, though you could wonder this couple’s wisdom at times. John is getting ready to become a doctor and Mia is preparing for their first child. He decides to give his wife a doll for her beloved collection. One night their next-door neighbors’ weird daughter, involved in satanic cults, comes to her parent’s house to kill them. While trying to help their neighbors, the couple gets attacked in their own house, and the satanic woman bleeds all over the precious doll, which was in the baby’s room. After the incident, the couple cleans everything up and chooses to keep the not so horrifying doll, which is now possessed by devil demons, thanks to the satanic woman’s blood.
Annabelle is not one of a kind. The film has very typical horror movie characters including a holy priest, an old wise witch, an easily scared mother, and a skeptical father who doesn’t believe in haunted houses.
This film leaves room more for laughing than screaming. In its intent of being scary, it came off a bit cheesy, and the fact that the doll exists in real life makes it even funnier.
Yes, the doll is real and it is located at Warren’s Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut. This museum is the oldest and only one of its kind. Ed and Lorraine Warren founded the museum in 1970. The museum displays an array of obscure and haunted artifacts and items used in occult and diabolical practices around the world. The real Annabelle doll does not look as creepy as it looks in the film. The director redesigned the doll for the movie in order to give it more scare appeal.
Appealing to the existence of the doll, the movie begins with “based on a true story” quote. However, not even horror film fans will believe this, because Hollywood tends to create these “true” stories in the intent of scaring their audience.
“Annabelle” is not a film to evoke adrenaline or provoke scary nightmares. Yes, you can scream, but it will be screams of laughter. Chucky and Annabelle are simply toys with makeup. Even Disney can create scarier possessed toys. The Spider Baby doll from “Toy Story 3” makes Annabelle look like an average doll.
