Directed by: David F. Sandberg
Written by: Gary Dauberman
Cast: Stephanie Sigman, Miranda Otto, Lulu Wilson
A creepy house in the middle of nowhere. A reclusive wife. A demonic doll. This is the recipe for the latest horror movie to hit the big screen Annabelle: Creation.
Samuel (Anthony LaPaglia) and Esther Mullins (Otto) live with their young daughter, Bee (Samara Lee) in a house outside of a small town. Samuel is a doll-maker who creates limited edition dolls for the toy-maker in town to sell. Unfortunately, Bee is taken from them in a tragic accident.
Twelve years later, the Mullins open their home to a group of girls from a local orphanage that is shutting down. Along with their teacher, Sister Charlotte (Sigman), the six girls: Linda (Wilson), Janice (Talitha Bateman), Kate (Tayler Buck), Nancy (Philippa Coulthard), Carol (Grace Fulton), and Tierney (Lou Lou Safran) move into the house. Sister Charlotte gets her own room, four of the girls are in another room, and that leaves Linda and Janice to bunk together. But there is one more bedroom, one that nobody is supposed to enter – Bee’s bedroom.
Almost immediately, while Sister Charlotte and the girls are getting settled, strange stuff starts happening. It starts out benign, like pages of a bible flipping rapidly or a door slowly creaking open, then soon escalates.
Sadly, Janice has been affected by polio. She has a brace on her leg and needs a cane to walk. Luckily the Mullins have a chair lift device so that Janice can transport herself between the two floors of the house.
One night, unable to sleep, Janice finds herself drawn to the bedroom that nobody is supposed to enter. She finds a little girl’s paradise – a pretty bedroom, toys galore, even a dollhouse that is loosely based on the Mullins house. She also finds a key to a locked door in the room. Of course, being curious, she unlocks the door, and what does she find? A creepy doll! Enter Annabelle.
After that incident, the door is literally open for creepy stuff to happen to these girls. Not just Janice either. Two of the girls are taking turns scaring each other silly telling scary stories, until they realize something else is in the room with them.
There is an eerie scarecrow outside making the girls feel uneasy. Eventually Linda finds her way into Bee’s bedroom and then experiences strange occurrences too. Besides all the supernatural stuff going on, none of the girls are allowed to interact with Mrs. Mullins, as she stays in the master bedroom at all times, leaving Mr. Mullins to take care of her. This just adds another layer to the uncomfortable, awkward feelings in the house.
What’s wrong with Mrs. Mullins? Was that just a shadow or a shape in the darkness? What’s up with the dollhouse? Why does nobody hear what is going on in this creepy house? These are some of the questions I had while watching this film. Fortunately, most questions are answered.
A solid horror film with an interesting story, Annabelle: Creation led into its successor film Annabelle neatly. During the intense scenes, I jumped several times. I thought I might have to sleep with the lights on that night, but I was ok once I got into my house that was creepy doll-free!
