Annabelle: Creation

David F. Sandberg’s Annabelle: Creation continues the new trend of superior prequels to terrible first installments.  It’s a rare thing, but with last year’s Ouija: Origin of Evil, and now Creation…it’s a thing.  The difference is that Creation is a prequel to a terrible film that was a spin-off of a good film…Ouija didn’t have that extra distinction. The good film that Creation was born from is James Wan’s The Conjuring, which garnered its own sequel with last year’s The Conjuring 2.  Its success has produced two spin-offs: Annabelle, and the upcoming The Nun.  Annabelle, the first spin-off, has now resulted in the aforementioned Annabelle: Creation – these films together, along with an inevitable third Conjuring film are part of the “Conjuring Universe.”  Because money.

Studio intentions or not, Wan should be proud of his “world” so far; the two Conjuring films are extremely well designed at playing audiences like a fiddle.  Things stumbled with the first Annabelle because the talent behind the camera couldn’t conjure (HA!) the right amount of finesse it takes to make these types of horror films.  Luckily Creation has been put in the capable hands of Sandberg, director of last year’s Light’s Out, a film produced by Wan, but not part of the “Conjuring Universe,” though I would gladly swipe the first Annabelle out for it.  Sandberg, Wan, and Creation’s well guided and mostly young cast, have churned out another spooky good-time.

The film opens in 1943 with doll-maker Samuel Mullins (Anthony LaPaglia) and his wife Esther(Miranda Otto) going about their lives with their young daughter, Bee (Samara Lee).  One day, tragedy strikes resulting in the death of the young girl, and the heartbreak of her parents.  Twelve years later, in 1955, the Mullins open their home to provide shelter for Sister Charlotte (Stephanie Sigman) and six girls left homeless by the closing of their orphanage.  Samuel Mullin is reserved but kind; Esther is locked away in a downstairs bedroom with half her face covered in a porcelain mask.  Four of the six orphaned girls stick together; the other two are outcasts named Janice (Talitha Eliana Bateman), a girl recovering from polio, and Linda (Lulu Wilson).  They look out for one another and refuse to get adopted if they can’t be together.

These opening scenes introducing us to the characters and the house they will inhabit throughout the film, do an excellent job of making sure the audience understands the layout of the house, and its quirks that will come into play later.  Devices like a shaft within a wall that contains a pully, which runs into the basement, and a mechanical lift-chair that goes up the steps, but will only move if the seat-belt is strapped in.  As an audience we know these devices will be used later on, and we worry about how.  Leading us to the main threat within the house that resides in an upstairs bedroom that’s supposed to remain locked, but we know better.  The bedroom once belonged to the Mullins’ daughter, Bee.  Now it may belong to something else…like a creepy doll possessed by a demon. This results in Janice, the slowest moving character because of her illness, venturing into that room, and unleashing what’s inside it on the rest of the household.

What Creation gets right, much like the first two Conjuring film’s and Light’s Out, is creating sequence after sequence that builds to its breaking point, before starting up once again.  Leaving the audience shrinking in their seat, never letting them up for air before the terror begins again.  This does result in a few issues however; as there’s no good reason for the characters to endure everything they do without getting out of dodge, but I can forgive that.  Less forgivable is how all of the constant fear and jump-scares (which are top-notch) rendered me exhausted by the time the film had reached its last act.  I was drained during Creation’s final thirty minutes, and it ended up hurting my experience.  It’s an issue that plagues even the first two Conjuring films, and it left me with a sour taste.

Still, another thing that Sandberg takes from the Conjuring films, in a good way, is having endearing characters that we care about.  The relationship between Janice and Linda is well-handled, and acted.  Bateman makes Janice full of life despite her shortcomings, which make us worried for her more than we normally would in a lesser horror film.  Wilson, who also starred in the excellent Ouija prequel, naturally takes the reigns as the film’s lead when called upon.  LaPaglia and Otto are solid as scared and grieving parents.  I also really liked Sigman as the the girls’ caretaker/teacher, a much better version of this type of role than normal, especially in these kinds of movies.  I also liked how they used her character in order to set up the universe’s next film, The Nun.  It’s a very slick moment.

But it’s the scares that audiences will come for, and Creation does not disappoint.  If you want to have fun being scared, Creation will fit the bill.  If you want something better than most horror films, Creation should fit the bill.  If you’re already tired of the “Conjuring Universe,” then don’t bother.  I’m not tired yet, so I had fun getting me a fright.

Grade: B-