Annabelle- rings a lot of bells. The not so playful doll from “The Conjuring” has returned in a spin off movie “Annabelle”, this time the doll has a lot more than just a brief appearance. Living up to the earlier movies reputation, Annabelle too is a horror movie. There was much anticipation from the movie, as the John Leonetti, Director Annabelle and Cinematographer, took on the challenge of making the movie. Leonetti has produced some remarkable block buster’s hence the buildup created for the release of Annabelle was quite remarkable. So far the film has received mixed reviews. Many of the critiques find it to be a decent work of art having substantial suspense material. However, others consider it to have a poor story line and believe that the best scenes of the movie are lifts from superior films. Annabelle is a prequel of The Conjuring, the story however makes no sense and has many draw backs in the plot, as the writer makes a failed attempt to explain how the doll became possessed and no reasonable explanation was seen as to how the doll got demonized and creates such mayhem. The movie nonetheless starts off at a great note and the director successfully portrays what horror used to be in 70’s and expertly plays with the satanic elements to craft fear into hearts of the viewer. The director makes quite delicate references to Rosemary’s Baby and the Charles Manson, which however, is a big question mark on originality of ideas. The movie later on destroys the whole climax with its ridiculously unappealing twists in the plot, moreover very confusing for the audience. A good story line makes sure that the elements in the plot move along swiftly as the movie progresses, everything should be adequately linked and hence fit in with proper reasoning. The only link we can figure in the story line is that of “Annabelle” and “The Conjuring” itself, otherwise the only reason of the evil happenings is “because the doll said so”. Viewers saw clear similarities to Child’s Play, a horror movie franchise operating since 1988, which is considered to be the pioneer of “doll-related” horror movies. The series has seen 6 parts, so keep that as a benchmark; critics do not expect to see much of Annabelle in future. Firstly because it is a prequel, secondly, not many producers would be interested in investing in re run of what audience has seen in past.
So if you are expecting to watch the movie and think it would be in likes of its sequel, you are in for a very big disappointment. “Annabelle� has surely failed to create real fear and will not go down the category of a classic, despite all the speculations and anticipation created prior to its release. http://www.researchomatic.com/New-Research/Horror-Films-242696.html