ANNABELLE 2014 FILM REVIEW

Hey guys,
Today I'm going to be reviewing the latest horror film 'Annabelle' . For people who haven't seen it and are thinking of going, I'll give you a brief synopsis, without spoiling too much. The 2014 film which was directed by John R Leonetti is a spin-off from the 2013 film 'The Conjuring'. It is based around the story of a doll that has been possessed by a spirit named Annabelle and has a taken a shining to it. Annabelle is using the doll as a way of connecting with a young couple in order to try and sacrifice a living soul.
I've always been a massive horror film fanatic. I just love the idea of not knowing what will happen next and the thrill of feeling nervous and excited all at the same time. It's such an adrenaline rush. I've also said that my dream acting role would be to perform in a horror film. Every time I watch a horror I usually try and scare my family and friends by jumping out at them when they're in the bathroom or frightening them by pretending I'm a character from the film. I know it's a little childish, but hey, who doesn't like to unleash their inner child sometimes.
Most of my friends think I'm absolutely nuts and they can't quite understand 'why I love watching films that are gory or make me scared'. Luckily my two best friends Rachel and Robyn are also horror film lovers (I guess best friends share the same weird and wonderful interests). Robyn and I saw 'The Conjuring' as soon as it came out and loved it, so as soon as we saw 'Annabelle' advertised we knew we had to see it. Normally I don't constantly think about horror films after I've been to see one, but 'The Conjuring' was a different matter. For three days after seeing this I couldn't sleep and all I kept picturing was a ghost staring at me from the top of my cupboard, waiting till I fell asleep so it could steal my soul. It was an amazing film but put it this way I haven't watched it since. I think the reason that I felt this way could be because at the start of the film they claimed it was 'based on a true story'. How much of it was actually based on real events I don't know, but the fact it stated it in the first place just freaks me out. Anyway so on the weekend Robyn and I decided to go to Enfield Cinema to watch 'Annabelle'. The opening scene started off the exact same way as 'The Conjuring' with the two nurses and vintage doll. I was really hoping that the story would be based around them and how they came to find this doll as I was quite disappointed last time at the way this part of the story had been quickly disregarded. Unfortunately the same happen for the scene in Annabelle. After the opening scene it quickly snapped back in time to the story of how the doll came to be possessed. Although as an audience member I was interested, I did however, expect the story to be placed on the nurses as in both films this scene had been emphasised.
The doll is part of a vintage collection. It has dirty blonde pigtails, a long white dress, creepy makeup (almost like a clown, or a child that has been playing with their mothers makeup case) and sits on a shelf in the baby's room. I have to admit it is a pretty freaky doll. I can't imagine why anyone would want this disturbed looking doll, let alone place in their new born baby's room. When the couple's neighbour's get murdered by their deranged daughter and her boyfriend, the murderers come to the couples house to claim their next victims. The thing that surprises me the most is even after all this the couple still remain in the house. The husband even leaves his heavy pregnant wife alone for two days in the same house that had been intruded. I thought this was a little unrealistic, as I can't ever imagine being happy for my husband go away leaving me by myself after id been a victim in my own home. But as my mum always tells me, it's a film, if it was realistic there wouldn't be a film in the first place.
I have to give praise to the actors, especially lead actress Annabelle Wallis, playing the character Mia. Her poise and grace on the screen was a pleasure to watch and she was able to bring a chilling yet believable acting approach to her character. The thing I seem to find is when actors portray feelings such as 'frightened' or 'grief-stricken' they tend to completely over play these emotions, making me as an audience loose faith in the character. From what I've learnt at Italia Conti Academy is that there is no need to exaggerate your emotions, especially on screen. The camera picks up every subtle detail. This can be extremely difficult for an actor that has done a lot of theatre work, as they find it difficult to 'tone down' their expressions. I can definitely relate to this as I have done far more stage acting than screen and had issues with down playing at the beginning. The only time this is acceptable is in pantomime, otherwise its definitely something to avoid.
Half way through the film there was a little twist where the spirit of Annabelle did something quite unexpected. This is the type of thing I enjoy to watch. It can often be predictable and pointless, but if it's done properly it can become a complete success and can change the audience's opinion. I think this finding a good plot twist is one of the most important factors of a decent horror. If this is not successful it can ruin the whole film, making it tedious and uninteresting. Although this part of the film was un-expected. I did feel like the majority of it was completely predictable. For example, although the lead character Mia knew the doll was causing mishap, she still decided to keep it in the house regardless and then when they did get rid of it, it still seemed to return many times. She also did things such as leave the baby by herself and go into the scary dark garage by herself. I can't deny the film was entertaining, I constantly heard the audience laughing and screaming, but I felt myself constantly foreseeing what was going to happen next, which started to make the film become boring.
I also noticed how many times they would use chilling music to build up suspense to something that didn't culminate to anything actually happening. It is a way of making the audience think 'hide your eyes, somethings going to happen' and it never does. It kind of annoys me when this happens. I feel as if all these horror films use the same tricks. It's not exciting when you know what is going to happen. Its like reading a book. Whats the point in reading the whole book if your going to just read the last page to find out how it ends. When I watch a film I want be intrigued and shocked by the end of the film.
The film ended back in the present day, where an older lady goes into an antique shop and finds the doll sitting there. She purchases this doll for her daughter who ends up being the nurse from the beginning of the film. It then shows the doll being held in a glass case, taken away for safety. It then shows a tag line to some affect of "it still sits today in Ed and Lorraine Warren's office, and can be highly dangerous if let out of the case". I guess this could be a cliffhanger and they've given themselves an option to make sequel, but I really hope they don't.
Overall I would probably give this film 3.5 stars out of 5. I think the acting was excellent and there was some good points to the film, but I think what let it down for me was the predictability and the dismissal for the first part of the story.
I'd say it's worth a watch but I wouldn't get your hopes up. 


(Picture source: imdb 2014)

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