Annabelle Creation: Guaranteed Scares!

The prequel to Annabelle is its creation, while Annabelle itself was genuinely scary the prequel is even better as it involves kids who take the meaty share of the movie’s thrills. Annabelle Creation is a part of the Conjuring series, its probably the film with the difference in the series as it does not try to desperately throw you out of the chair with scare, but builds you into the tension of a horror movie and takes you on a slow tale of scare and glare.

Characters in Annabelle: Creation get hurt, even go on to die, only to come back to life possessed by demons. The drama is set, as the consequences and bad things start to happen, the movie’s title as it says about the origin of the doll is told as usual in a sinister way, but the flash forward to the orphaned girls is more creative and entertaining as it forms the cusp of the plot. The last movie, Annabelle, explained how the eponymous evil doll came to be in the possession of paranormal investigators Lorraine and Ed Warren in The Conjuring. No prizes for guessing that this one sets out to show how a seemingly innocent child’s toy became Satan’s playtime scare.

The film begins with what the title suggests - the literal creation of the doll, probably set in the 1940 - 50 era. Sam (Anthony LaPaglia), a doll maker, is putting the finishing touches on the first, and presumably only, doll in this particular line of work. No sooner is he done than his daughter, Bee (Samara Lee) - real name Annabelle - leaves him notes for a hide-and-seek game. The thing about a horror movie is that you can’t watch an innocent game without a sense of foreboding. But Sam and Bee and wife and mother Esther (Miranda Otto) are happy, romping around in their giant house in the middle of nowhere, as is the case of any horror movie – always middle of nowhere, but yes lets excuse that.

Without much spoilers, the movie shoots ahead by a decade where we see a couple of girls - all orphaned who start living in the same home. Slowly yet steadily Sandberg takes time to build those characters although everyone needs to get scared in a horror movie. All except one room can be opened, and no prizes for the guesses, its Bee’s room. What happens over time is best to watch and find out. Sandberg tries to keep it simple, yet in a gloriously funny way. The teens are fun, good to see something apart from plain horror all along.

The jump in quality from the predecessor to the sequel is so enormous, it is hard to even think of them as part of the same whole franchise. There’s not a vast amount of gory blood, which is not a bad thing instead the director saves it for when it’ll count most; until then, he keeps the audience on the edge of their seats trying to sort out where things are going to hop out from next. Sandberg sets a simple image of an unused scarecrow leaning against a wall be something the just oozes dread effectively, even when it doesn’t do anything but sit there, but you know you aren’t going to trust what happens the moment you turn away from it.

So on an end note, is Annabelle Creation the best horror movie made till date, well it certainly is ONE of the best in recent years without a doubt. Watch it for the sheer entertainment that you expect to hit your head as you walk into a haunted house, the experience is brought before on a genuine honest effort; the rocking chair, the creepy doll and all that will remain for some time as you walk out of theatres.

Verdict : Annabelle Creation is the story of the possessed doll’s origin. Sandberg has given life to the doll which scares you rightfully as intended. Go watch in theatres to experience the shrills.