Annabelle (2014) Directed by John R. Leonetti
Oh haunted dolls…why are you a sub-genre? If you look so damn creepy why do these idiots buy you and put you in their homes? When this came out I remember watching the trailer and thinking it looked creepy, then I realized it was really similar to Child’s Play or even Dolly Dearest (wow that’s an obscure reference). It is a spin-off of the movie The Conjuring, which people swoon over; I thought it was alright, nothing horrible nothing amazing. Annabelle was a huge success in the box office making over $256million! When it was time for me to watch a movie, I was too lazy to get off the couch and get a DVD or Bluray so I flipped through the channels, saw that Annabelle was on Cinemax. I figured I’d give this movie a watch, it has mixed reviews and I wanted to make my own judgment.
A young couple John and Mia Form are expecting their first child. John gives her some creepy ass doll that for some reason she’s been trying to find. She of course thinks its amazing and puts it on her shelf in her collection that put Susan Ross’s from Seinfeld to shame. A night Mia hears a murder next door, so John runs next door to check, and comes back covered in blood. Mia and John go back in the house and a lunatic stabs Mia in the stomach. She falls to the ground and John attacks the crazy dude. Suddenly a insane woman runs in and attacks John. He fights with her while the crazed guy gets up and the cops shoot him. The woman runs into the doll room and grabs the new creepy doll then continues to slit her own throat. The woman draws a symbol on the wall in her blood. The news says that woman was the neighbor’s daughter Annabelle Higgins and her boyfriend. The two murdered her parents as part of the Disciples of the Ram, a satanic cult.
Annabelle was holding the doll when she died, Mia asks John to toss it out (SMART). The doll is assumed as a fire starter in the house causing Mia to trip and fall on the baby, damn that fetus takes a beating. She goes into labor and Leah is brought into the world of crazy dolls that start fires. The couple then moves to an apartment building in Pasadena. Mia unpacks the dolls and finds the one she thought was tossed out. More weird shit happens and she talks to the cops. The cop tells her about the cult and how they summon demons by claiming a soul. Mia goes into a bookstore ran by Evelyn and reads in a book that they want Leah’s soul. Evelyn talks about her daughter Ruby, that died in a car crash caused by Evelyn. Evelyn attempted suicide at the time. She says Ruby’s voice told her that it wasn’t her time.
The couple goes to the church and talks to Father Perez. Father Perez decides he will take the doll with him to the church, so the evil power will be weakened with the power of god. Annabelle’s ghost and the demon creature attack Father, thus putting him in the hospital. John visits Perez in the hospital and he warns him that it was in fact Annabelle, and he felt that the demon wanted Mia’s soul. John rushes home to warn his wife and Evelyn. Evelyn is blow out of the door and it is slammed shut and locked. Annabelle appears to levitate but you quickly see the cool looking demon holding the doll. The demon snatches up the baby and vanishes. Mia attempts to kill Annabelle and asks if there is another way, and it says she can offer her soul instead of Leah’s. John and Evelyn come back in to find Mia standing with the doll on the window ledge, ready to fall to her death. John rushes over and saves Mia; suddenly Evelyn takes the doll and says this is what she can do to atone for Ruby’s death. She jumps out of the window, dying on impact next to the doll. Leah appears back in her crib unharmed, while the doll has now disappeared from Evelyn’s body.
Six months now have passed and the Forms have not seen the doll or the demon. Cut to a store where a woman is buying Annabelle for her daughter. She says it is a gift for her and she has been looking for one like it for some time. The ending text reads that the real Annabelle doll is in a case in Ed and Loraine Warren’s museum. A priest to keep the public safe from the evil the doll contains blesses the doll twice a month. The camera lingers on the doll and it cuts to black.
This was a hard movie for me to wrap my head around. I kept trying to figure out why they couldn’t just demolish the doll or cover it in holy water. A doll containing a soul made me roll my eyes and think of Chucky. In all fairness you never see the doll move by itself, so its not really a Chucky rip off. I guess I just thought the doll was pointless. Couldn’t it just be the demon and a ghost? Why did we need the creepy ass doll, because dolls are scary? Having the doll in the movie seemed to be a hook to bring in outside movie viewers. Casual horror fans see the doll and think it is creepy so they have to see the movie. What happens in the movie is much different than you originally think. The doll really doesn’t kill anyone; it doesn’t run around, it is actually being moved by the horned demon. Also, I am not a doctor, I am a graphic artist, but I find it hard to believe that the baby survives getting stabbed and crashing to the ground. Wouldn’t the baby just die at that point? Also if Annabelle died holding the doll, wouldn’t the cops take it as evidence? I would only assume that would be the case. After watching it I am still not sure how I feel about it, it is not a good movie by any means, but the demon was creepy and the acting was acceptable. I think I would give this a C, a solid C. If you think it is going to be a killer doll movie, you’ll be very disappointed. If you like satanic cult movies with demons and idiots that don’t know how to destroy dolls, then you might like this. I wasn’t really impressed, but I guess I didn’t expect much anyway.
I have recently did some research on the REAL Annabelle. The story is rather interesting, truly more terrifying than the movie is. The doll looks NOTHING like the movie doll. It is your basic Raggedy Ann doll, which I think is actually creepier than the movie doll. It is currently in a museum inside Ed and Lorraine Warren’s house, concealed inside a glass case. The doll is blessed twice a month by a priest to hold back the evil that it allegedly contains. The doll has been reported to move within the case without aid and has been reported to growl at visitors. Whether or not all that is true, is beyond me, but it is creepy and interesting all the same. Here is a picture of the real doll on display in the museum.
