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Friday, April 26, 2024
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HOLLYWOOD ANNABELLE : CREATION
EDITOR'S PICK
'Annabelle: Creation': Lazily scripted and lacks spirit (Review By
Troy Ribeiro, Rating: ** )
Director David F. Sandberg's latest offering "Annabelle: Creation" -- as the
title suggests -- is the original tale or the prequel to the 2014 released
"Annabelle". It is the fourth instalment in the Conjuring series. It once again
focusses on the creepy doll seen in "The Conjuring" and fills in its demonic
backstory in this haunted house film.
With a long winding prologue, the narration opens in early 1940s with Samuel
Mullins (Anthony LaPaglia) a toy maker, putting out a limited edition of his
dolls in the market. And in between the production of the doll, we see the
loving bond Samuel and his wife Ester (Miranda Otto) share with their daughter
Annabelle whom they fondly address as 'Belle'.
One fateful Sunday, the Mullins lose their daughter in a tragic accident. Twelve
years later, Mrs. Mullins is bed ridden and Mr. Mullins, still crestfallen over
the passing away of their daughter, opens the doors of their sprawling
Californian farmhouse to a group of six orphan girls along with their guardian
Sister Charlotte (Stephanie Sigman). The only instruction he gives the girls is
to stay away from his daughter Annabelle's room.
Predictably, the locked door is opened by Janice (Talitha Bateman) the
polio-afflicted young girl who is the weakest of the lot. She tentatively
explores the numerous interconnected rooms as curiosity finally gets the better
of her, when she notices that something isn't right in the Mullins' house.
The room, still decorated with Annabelle's toys and furnishings, is a complete
delight, until Janice finds the large, white-frocked wooden doll in the
wardrobe, one of Mullins' original creation. Put off by the garishly painted
toy, Janice initially tries to ignore the doll, but soon she is convinced that
the doll is possessed and determined to seize her soul.
Thence, she along with the rest of the girls discover the secrets about the
Mullins and the malevolent spirit that haunts their house.
The film has all the tropes of the horror genre and is astutely mounted as a
terrifying film with a slow paced narrative. It conscientiously and methodically
builds tension that gives you goosebumps but it fails to grip your attention.
Key scenes seem to be snipped and hence, the script seems superfluous and falls
short on connections and fundamental conflicts. Clearly, the writing is faulty.
On the performance front, it is Talitha Bateman who steals the show as the
polio-stricken Janice. She is endearing. She is aptly supported by Lulu Wilson
as her best friend Linda and Stephanie Sigman as Sister Charlotte.
Anthony LaPaglia as Samuel Mullen is stoically bland and Miranda Otto as his
wife Esther has her moments of on-screen scares. Together, they are
under-utilised.
On the production front, director Sandberg along with production designer
Jennifer Spence make great use of the eerily vast layout of the Mullins'
farmhouse just as director Wan did with the haunted home at the centre of "The
Conjuring". But it is clustered - Annabelle's room, the barn, the well in the
courtyard and the unexplained lift shaft in the farm house that is used as the
focal area of action and are well-exploited.
Overall, the film is visually well-captured but the spirit is missing.
Several years after the tragic death of their little girl, a dollmaker and his wife welcome a nun and several girls from a shuttered orphanage into their home, soon becoming the target of the dollmaker’s possessed creation, Annabelle.
