Annabelle: Creation (2017) - Sandberg's orphanage doll prequel is slow but rewarding

♥♥♥

The titular doll looks unusually frightening on this poster for David F. Sandberg's Annabelle: Creation

When doll-maker Mullins and his wife lose their young daughter in a tragic accident in 1943, they withdraw and unknowingly come to invite an evil into their home. More than a decade later, they invite new life into their lives, thinking that they are safe to do so.

Annabelle: Creation is the 4th film in the Conjuring franchise, the sequel and prequel to John R. Leonetti's Annabelle (2014). It is written by Gary Dauberman (Annabelle) and directed by David F. Sandberg (Lights Out (2016)).
Annabelle: Creation takes its sweet time coming around to the scares it holds with plenty of scenes of thumps, shadows and so on, and, coupled with the cast, which mostly consists of young girls, it may impress hard-boiled horror-fans as a bit of a 'kiddie horror'. It is not the all-out horror attack known from James Wan's The Conjuring (2013) and The Conjuring 2 (2016) but a softer package. The recently passed on master filmmaker Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)) is palpable as inspiration here; especially his The Funhouse (1981) and Poltergeist (1982). The film also calls to mind a more recent, great horror film, Guillermo Del Toro's The Devil's Backbone/El Espinazo del Diablo (2001).
Dauberman and Sandberg make a virtue out of following the conventions of the genre and those set up by the previous entries in the franchise. It is hard to come up with new tricks while also following a set path and inhabiting a well-defined universe.
But they manage well with a classic haunted house story; just expect some classic clichés also; the car that won't start and the adult authority figures that won't simply move away from the belligerent house with their tormented children, to name a couple. Christianity and the church are the only way to beat the evil into submission, once again, - SPOILER but even a priest can be mistaken, we see here, as the film neatly ties itself up to the very beginning of Annabelle.
The cast do uniformly fine here; no-one distinguishes themselves enough to be highlighted, and the girls feel less genuinely innocent and of-the-period than one might have hoped.
Don't expect the Annabelle origin story to be overly detailed; SPOILER the film still doesn't actually tell us anything about what the demonic presence that inhabits the doll is, and towards the ending, it seems there is more than one demon roaming the premises. - But, most importantly, the a bit long and slow-winding Annabelle: Creation does churn out some effective scares, SPOILER and demons shown shortly, which the horror-fan will inevitably want to stare at for longer than the film lets us. But this is probably as it should be.
Annabelle: Creation matches the quality of Annabelle and makes for a decent warm-up until the hugely anticipated It, which the world by now is just about gasping to finally get to see in a few weeks.

Related posts:
 
Conjuring franchise: The Conjuring 2 (2016) - Wan's sequel is a long horror treat with terrifying periods
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
Annabelle (2014) - Leonetti's creepy if derivative Conjuring spin-off 

The Conjuring (2013) - Best horror film in 7 years (cinematographer)

David F. Sandberg: Lights Out (2016) - Sandberg debuts with effective spook story

Watch a teaser trailer for the film here

Cost: 15 mil. $
Box office: 217.6 mil. $ and counting
= Mega-hit
[Annabelle: Creation premiered 19 June (Los Angeles Film Festival) and runs 109 minutes. Shooting took place in California from June - August 2016. As with Conjuring 2, a priest blessed the set before shooting began. The film opened #1 to a 35 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it has spent its following two weeks at #2 and to date grossed 79 mil. $. The film is likely to still gross quite a bit and may reach or even top the 256.9 mil. $ gross of Annabelle. It has pushed the franchise past the 1 bil. $ mark as only the third horror franchise so far, following the Alien and Resident Evil franchises. It has yet to open in a few markets: Argentina tomorrow, in Greece in mid-September and in major markets Spain and Japan on 12 and 13 October, respectively. The film's success, like almost all horror films, is not thanks to China, which don't award such films a license to release in the country. Next in the Conjuring franchise is The Nun (2018), a second spin-off, this of the nun seen in Conjuring 2. Annabelle: Creation is fresh at 68 % with a 6.1/19 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Annabelle: Creation?

Lights Out (2016) - Sandberg debuts with effective spook story

♥♥♥♥

 

The curiosity-sparking, simple poster for David F. Sandberg's Lights Out

 

Lights Out is the feature debut of David F. Sandberg (Closet Space (2016), short), based on his own same-titled 2013 short and written by Eric Heisserer (The Thing (2011)).

Following the violent, mysterious death of his father, little Martin reaches out to his big sister, who lives alone in the city. Their mother is depressed and mentally unstable, talking to a woman in the house, who died decades ago, and who can only be in the dark.

Lights Out is an old-school spook story or a campfire story, sure to upset especially its younger audiences' night's sleep. It's got an effective gimmick at its heart; a maleficent entity that only moves in the dark. The film gets a lot out of this premise and couples it with a story of mental illness and an incredible skin disease.

Maria Bello (Grown Ups (2010)) is very credible as the mentally unhinged mother, and Gabriel Bateman (Annabelle (2014)) plays the brave boy Martin very well. None of the others are anything less than good, although the bigger sister, essentially the film's protagonist, and her relationship with her long-haired, slightly dopey boyfriend wasn't all that hot. I also wouldn't have minded a little fun in Lights Out, but that isn't part of its game.

Instead it succeeds in being a creepy, very simple horror with some good shocks and effective sound design. Don't expect a gore fest here. Lights Out is not that type of horror.

Watch an official trailer for the film here

Cost: 4.9-5 mil. $

Box office: 110.9 mil. $ and counting

= Mega-hit

[Lights Out premiered June 8 (Los Angeles Film Festival) and runs 81 minutes. Sandberg had not worked with a film crew or been on a film set before directing the film. Filming took place in LA from June - August 2015. The premiere was arranged to benefit from the major success of one of its producers, James Wan's The Conjuring 2's release around the same time. The film opened #3, behind new release Star Trek Beyond and holdover hit The Secret Lives of Pets, to a 21.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd week and to date has grossed 64.5 mil. $ (58.2 % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets have been Russia with 3.7 mil. $ (3.3 %) and Argentina with 2.4 mil. $ (2.2 %). A sequel with Heisserer and Sandberg back as writer and director, respectively, has already been announced. Lights Out is certified fresh at 76 % with a 6.3 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Lights Out?