I’ll be honest, as always, with this one.
After watching the Conjuring my hopes started to fly. It was a good movie. Not the best one I have seen though, but it was pretty decent compared to the Paranormal Activity ones. I thought that if that one was good, Annabelle would make me reenact my days of Chucky terror (I was seven when I watch a scene of the movie that would leave deep trauma inside of me years later… but that’s another story. The truth about this movie is that it isn’t that scary. If you remove the jump-scares there’s not really anything to be afraid of. Yes, the doll’s face is hideous, but believe me, once you get used to that creepy face is kind of pointless. You see, obviously the producers thought of making Annabelle super creepy. They wanted one reaction from the audience and that was fear. How did they get it? Well, they created a new doll that kind reminds me of the Saw series. But, the real Annabelle is way less creepier than that. If you didn’t know, the real Annabelle is a old-school doll made of fabric.
Ok, so now, the plot!
What really bothered me a lot about this movie was the plot. I have read the real Annabelle story anywhere online and is ten times scarier than the movie. In the website the story begins telling that Annabelle was a gift from a mother to a daughter. The daughter was a nurse who lived with a friend, also a nurse. And yes, they gave permission to little “Annabelle Higgins” to live inside the doll. Was the real demon attached to her? We don’t know. Did the demon need permission in the first place? We don’t know. And, honestly, I would have preferred for the producers of this movie not saying anything about it, but is Hollywood and they will exploit anything for the sake of money
First of all, the events that happened in this movie “attempted” to explain how Annabelle got her evilness. I thought they were going to continue where the Conjuring started. I’m talking about this scene:
The two nurses speaking about Annabelle to the super-cool paranormal team, but no đ producers decided to make a pre-sequel of the sequel, which would be Annabelle 2. I didn’t like their attempt at explaining how Annabelle was evil, at all. In the first movie, the doll was mysterious, creepy. It made you wonder how and what happened with her to be like that. To the point your mind would go wild and freak the heck out of it. I would have preferred they left the mystery of the doll, as that, a mystery. Now I cannot take her too seriously. The movie went from Annabelle to Chucky in a couple of seconds. Why Chucky?
Annabelle Higgins, supposedly by the producers, was the daugther of Pete and Sharon Higgins. Friendly people that went to church every Sunday. Annabelle, their daughter, had escaped a few weeks/months ago and many believed she was dead. SPOILER ALERT… she was NOT! She was only living with her boyfriend and both were part of a satanic cult. No biggie. Then one night Annabelle comes back with her boyfriend to her home, and they kill both of her parents because of cult reasons, I guess.
The Higgins’ neighbors, which are also our main protagonists, hear the commotion get out of their house to investigate because that’s what everyone would do right away. Police, 911, ambulance? What’s that?
John Gordon goes to the neighbors house and finds that everyone is dead while his wife, Mia (she’s prego) stays at home. BIG NO! Annabelle and her boyfriend enter the Gordon’s house and stab Mia. Then John enters the house and attacks Annabelle, but her boyfriend almost kills him. Almost. The police arrives and helps as Annabelle runs into the nursery room the couple have for the baby. There are shots and Mia is still in shock as she looks as the nursery, then she faints.
Annabelle, the doll, came to the house thanks to John Gordon. It seemed like Mia had some kind of weird fetish with super-creepy dolls, so she was happy when John shows her what he bought for her. That doll was placed inside the nursery, and that doll was used by the living Annabelle so she could transfer her soul, I guess.
After the attack, John throws Annabelle into the garbage because Mia got all sensitive whenever she looked at it because it reminded her of the attack.
Once the couple has baby Leah or Liah, they move to another place with the hopes Mia can recover from the traumatic experience. I’m don’t really like babies, but Leah was such a precious one. She’s just too cute and adorable… sorry. When they move everything seems perfect until
Annabelle appears once again inside a box/bag can’t remember anymore. John insists on throwing her away once again, but Mia refuses believing that it will help her cope with her trauma and she put is back in the new nursery room. I thought she had said it would help HER cope. HER, not her child. HER.
After that, strange events start to happen followed by a huge repertoire of jump-scares đ some crayon messages here and there, Annabelle closing and opening door, the doll almost killing a Father, Annabelle sitting and then floating (this last scene, I loved). Also, I was kind of confused. By half of the movie you see two beings related to Annabelle. There’s the killer, and there’s a demon. Are these the same entity? They didn’t say. If a person is part of a cult they become demons in the afterlife? They didn’t say. Why would a demon share the doll with a human? You already know where I’m going with this.
In any case, I was full of questions that never got answered and they won’t probably be answered… ever. In the Conjuring we had an explanation about witch, which made sense. Again, in this movie there were plot-holes too but it was way better than Annabelle’s.
Part of the last scene was super random. Halfway through the movie we’re introduced to a lady that manages a library with every kind of book, including the very creepy ones about cults.
The producers attempted that we cared about her because otherwise, what would be the purpose of introducing characters with a painful back-story that will only end in their imminent death because they don’t really have nothing to continue on living?
Once again… HOLLYWOOOOD!
The very last scene was kind of funny. Kind of. The doll Annabelle, after eating a soul, appears in an antique store. She’s sitting in one of the shelves to your right, and to your left you can see how it looks the real Annabelle doll. Watch it, watch it! I think it was a pretty clever contrast between both of them, and I honestly believe the producers got a couple of laughs doing that.
Anyways, don’t expect this movie to be better than the Conjuring. Not even the music scared me because they used variants of Rory’s lullaby. I miss Rory, such a cute ghost.
Finally, I’ll leave you with a super-cool link that explains the facts and fiction of the movie!
http://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/annabelle/
My Spanglish Library 