By: Shane J Alliew

At the end of 108 minutes of Annabelle Creations, you will but ask yourself, what it is really that director David F. Sandberg wanted to convey through his spin off connecting Conjuring (I & II) and the previous series of Annabelle?

Don’t worry if you are not able to find a logical answer to the query- I did not either. I have opined on several occasions that good cinema is like wholesome home baked cake; consume on the day prepared. When kept in the refrigerator it no doubt can be re-served again but it looses originality.

The same can be said of Annabelle, especially proclaiming to be of the ‘horror’ genre. With so many of them doing the rounds now, clever audiences that we are, all have learnt now what to expect at the twists and turns of the plot: the creaking door, the sudden jerk, the floating possessed child/ woman/ man, and so on and so forth. But now a doll!

Samuel Mullins (Anthony LaPagalia), a doll maker lives with his doting wife Esther (Miranda Otto) and pretty daughter Bee (Samara Lee) as a complete, happy family. One day after their Sunday service when their car break down, tragedy strikes and we are brought in twelve years after that.

Samuel invites a nun, Sr. Charlotte (Stephanie Sigman) and six orphaned girls to share their semi-abandoned house and shattered lives on the advice of the local priest Fr. Massey (Mark Bramhall). The priest feels that the absence of their little Bee will be made up by the presence of these orphans and the house will be alive once again.

Well, the house is for sure alive, as a matter of fact it had been alive immediately after the tragic death of Bee and now the cursed doll, within which lives a satanic power demands more- it wants to devour the soul of Janice (Talitha E Bateman), one of the girls.

Janice’s best friend (read circumstance-driven-companion-turned-sister) Linda (Lulu Wilson) and Sr. Charlotte find the courage to fight against the atrocities of the doll and all seems under control, or is it?

Apart from a loose story the plot too unfolds lethargically lacking the lustre and shine of a well-baked horror piece. It need not make us jump or actually scream, but the least it could have attempted was to very subtly let the message sink in, perhaps making us believe that indeed there is a parallel world which runs along with our regular daily activities.

And sometimes these two merge together and a doorway is opened.

Rating: 2.5/5