Annabelle is a prequel to last year’s box office hit The Conjuring
By Gareth McKeown
I’ve never been a man for horror movies.
They have never seemed plausible in my estimation. Mythical battles in middle-earth yes, a boy wizard, of course, but paranormal activity, serial killers, it’s all just a bit too far-fetched for me.
So it was some scepticism and quite a bit of cynicism that I went to see horror flick Annabelle.
A prequel to last year’s box office hit The Conjuring the film directed by John R. Leonetti tells the story of a husband and wife who are expecting their first child and all seems perfect, until one night a couple of Satanic cultists invade their home, before being quickly brought down by the police. Not before though one of the Satanists pours their blood into the doll of Annabelle. As you do of course.
So, as you can imagine things don’t so swimmingly for the family as Annabelle wreaks havoc, terrorising the mother through a mixture of visual effects and hell-raising action, which in all honesty never quite hits the spot.
In my head a good horror movie should be like going to the dentist. You don’t want to go originally and while you’re there you sit and suffer until it’s over, but are glad you went in the end. While Annabelle achieves this to a certain degree, it does so without any real element of surprise and suspense and left me deeply frustrated as there was nothing original or captivating about the plot or characters.
As you can tell from reading this horror films are not my favourite genre, but moving past the obvious it is possible to make a good horror film and a good film. Look at the first Saw movies.
Suspense, surprise and a villain with depth and intellect. A doll flying in mid air, the vessel for the spirit of a murderer?
Sorry it’s not for me. Give me Harry Potter any day!
