Annabelle: Baby, Doll and the possession

In the milieu of The Conjuring, comes Annabelle. The film starts with the same opening scene from The Conjuring, in which two young women and a young man in 1968 are telling paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren about their experience with a doll they believe to be haunted, known as Annabelle. From there, it goes back in time one year to tell the tale of how the doll came to be imbued with the demonic force that resides within it.

John (Ward Horton) and Mia (Annabelle Wallis) are expecting their first child, as they’re attending Sunday services at their local church. They’re with their neighbours, Pete (and Sharon Higgins. The Higgins have an adult daughter (named Annabelle), who’s been missing for a while, and has probably joined a hippie or occult cult. Later that evening, as everyone is asleep, Mia hears a scream come from her neighbours home, and asks John to investigate. It turns out that the Higgins’ daughter has come home, with another cult member, a man. After murdering Annabelle’s parents, the two go over to kill Mia, John and their unborn child. Mia gets stabbed, while John manages to fend off her attackers, until the police arrive, shooting Annabelle’s partner. Meanwhile she slits her own throat in another room. But as he is dying, Annabelle holds Mia’s brand new doll in her arms and her blood trickles on to the doll’s face.

Wide angles and slow tracking, often ending at a semi-close or close shot of the possessed doll, which does nothing at that point, result in several moments of suspense coupled with predictability, and resultant disappointment. For the rest, an eerie foreboding is well-maintained. Cuts to deafening sounds create the de rigueur jolts that are staple diet to this genre. Competent performances, albeit in weak story situations, give the film some see-worthiness. The second half slips from its groove and the end disappoints. Obviously, the writer and director have taken huge liberties with the true story, but not many of them are screen-worthy.

It must be an incredible co-incidence that Annabelle also happens to be the name of the actress who plays the lead role. Annabelle Wallis (Mia Form) is a British actress who has worked in both film and television. Wallis’ previous film credits include W.E. and X Men: First Class. Her persona is refreshing without being stunning, which goes well with the role.

Ward Horton, who plays her husband, was seen in The Wolf of Wall Street. He is smooth and handles the crisis scenes with some dignity. Alfre Woodard (Evelyn, who has undergone an experience not too far removed from what Mia is expecting) is an Oscar nominated actress (Cross Creek). Also seen and much appreciated in Twelve Years a Slave, she seems lost here. Unable to decide whether the role is sympathetic or suspense driven, she gropes along.

Director John R. Leonetti has enjoyed a long collaboration with producer James Wan, which began when he served as Wan’s cinematographer on the horror film Dead Silence (2007). This was followed by Death Sentence, a revenge drama starring Kevin Bacon.  He also served as cinematographer on Wan’s hits Insidious, and Insidious: Chapter 2, as well as The Conjuring. Leonetti earlier directed Mortal Kombat: Annihilation and The Butterfly Effect 2. He recently told an American publication, "I am open to (paranormal activity), yes. I had my own personal experience once, way back in high school. I was raised Catholic, but I am not religious anymore, but I will say that 'The Exorcist' really affected me and then one little personal experience that I had definitely opened the door. I was in a motel where nobody was supposed to be upstairs, and there were people upstairs, on the ceiling -- like in our movie -- and scratching the door in the middle of the night, so that was kind of creepy," Leonetti revealed. Annabelle is moderately creepy, with no major high points to keep you on the edge of your seat.

James Wan (producer) directed the 2013 The Conjuring, also taken from the case files of Ed and Lorraine Warren. This time around, he leaves the job to his cinematographer. One wonders whether that was a good decision. Gary Dauberman (screenwriter) earlier wrote Swamp Devil. This one is conversation heavy, which is not bad if you want to explain ‘strange goings on’, but not if it is in a film that appears to have intended to give you a tough time suppressing shrieks. It’s alright taking liberties with factual stories, but not all of them are pulled off successfully. James Kniest (cinematographer) makes his motion picture debut with Annabelle. His camera is fluid. If anything, with a cinematographer also at the megaphone, it appears the duo got a little indulgent.

Tom Elkins (editor/The Haunt) directed and edited The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia, and served as editor on The Haunting in Connecticut. All that would have stood him in good stead had he succeeded in triggering more than stock reactions among viewers. A few cuts do have an impact, though. It is true that cinematography, sound effects and editing are the ghosts…oops…souls of horror films. To that extent, we have passable fare here. But without the real soul, the screenplay and direction, they do not add up to much.

Do you remember a film called Rosemary’s Baby, starring MIA Farrow?

Rating: **

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paFgQNPGlsg

Back-story

There is a back-story to Annabelle, who is actually locked up in the Warren Occult Museum in Connecticut, founded by Ed and Lorraine Warren in 1952. Annabelle is visited only by a priest, who blesses her twice a month. In the 1970s, a mother bought the doll at a second-hand store and gave it to her daughter, Donna. Donna and her room-mate, Angie, started noticing that Annabelle would move around the house and move on her own when no one was home. After inviting a medium to their apartment, Donna and Angie learned that the apartment was built on a field where a young girl named Annabelle was killed. The medium said the ghost of the girl was attached to the doll, and that it was harmless. That last bit was not true. Donna and Angie began to find little pieces of paper that read "Help me" throughout the apartment. Then, Donna's boy-friend was mysteriously attacked by an unknown force when he entered the room where the doll was kept. Donna contacted a priest, who connected her with a paranormal investigator and demonologist, Ed, and his wife Lorraine Warren, a psychic medium. After coming in contact with the doll, they determined it was not a ghost but a demon manipulating the doll, who wanted to ultimately possess Donna. After the terrifying incidents, they shifted the doll to the Warrens' home. While at the Warrens, Annabelle would continue to move around, and even levitate. There wasn't an exorcism, but Annabelle now remains locked in a case at the Warren Occult Museum.