The prequel “Annabelle: Creation” upstages original story of evil doll

In 2016, “Ouija: Origin of Evil” caused a bit of a stir because it was a much better movie than the original “Ouija.” History has repeated itself, with “Annabelle: Creation” being a much scarier and complete film than “Annabelle.”

The original “Annabelle” may have been victimized by high expectations, as it was an offshoot of the successful “Conjuring” series, and a story of an evil doll to boot. Although it was a decent movie, most horror aficionados shrugged it off.

Well, boys and girls, “Annabelle: Creation” is fused with much more creepy energy.

And interestingly, Lulu Wilson, who played the key role of the possessed little girl in “Ouija: Origin of Evil,” is also in “Annabelle: Creation.”

As the title implies, “Creation” goes back to the beginning, when, in the 1940s, doll-maker Samuel Mullins (Anthony LaPaglia) finishes the first of what he plans on being a limited (100 made) edition of a doll that eventually becomes Annabelle. Samuel, his wife Esther (Miranda Otto) and daughter Bee (Samara Lee) live happily in a remote house.

But then a tragic accident costs the life of little Bee.

Twelve years later, the Mullins offer their home as a residence for six young girls after the orphanage where they were living is shuttered. Over the years, the Mullins home has become aged and creaky, the perfect environment for scary things to happen.

By now Samuel is stoic and a bit creepy himself, seemingly just a shell of the man he used to be. Meanwhile, Esther is confined to a bed in a room off-limits to the girls.

The six girls, accompanied by Sister Charlotte (Stephanie Sigman) settle in, with the two older teens, Carol (Grace Fulton) and Nancy (Phillippa Coulthard) and two pre-teen tag-alongs, Kate (Tayler Buck) and Tierney (Lou Lou Safran) hanging out together. Meanwhile, Linda (Lulu Wilson) and Janice (Tablitha Bateman) are sort of outcast and thus bond together, hoping that if they ever are adopted they will be so together and can continue to live as if sisters. Janice cannot keep up with the others anyway because polio has rendered her left leg useless.

Nevertheless it is Janice, mostly confined indoors, who senses something ominous is connected to the house, and despite a decree from Samuel to stay out of the locked room that had been Bee’s bedroom, finds her way into that forbidden space. Inside there is a terrific dollhouse but also a closet that naturally draws Janice’s curiosity. She finds a key and opens it, and well, you can guess what she finds in there.

Gary Dauberman, who wrote the original “Annabelle” screenplay, is back with this script, and has more to work with in providing the story of what happened that led to a seemingly innocent and harmless doll becoming a conduit to something so evil.

The director, David F. Sandberg, was responsible for both the “Lights Out” short film and feature-length version of that horror story, and again proves adept at turning the supposedly secure environment of a home into a battle ground between mortals and a formidable entity that can be devastating.

Unlike her role as the possessed Doris Zander in “Ouija: Origin of Evil,” Wilson is not the target of the soul-invading spirit. Instead she is the one who realizes something awful is happening to her friend Janice and naturally her warnings are waved off until all hell breaks loose.

So, “Annabelle” focuses primarily on Janice and Linda, and the two young actresses are remarkable — Janice a heart-tuggingly sweet girl bravely dealing with a handicap that she suspects will prevent her from  finding a forever home.

Wilson, meanwhile, continues to shine, this time as a child tugged by the desire to be part of the group of girls but is steadfastly loyal to Janice. Fans of horror my recall Wilson’s memorable scene in “Ouija” in which she offers to her sister’s boyfriend the brief dissertation of “what it feels like to be strangled to death.” Mike Flanagan, director of “Ouija: Origin of Evil,” made an appearance at Monsterpalooza earlier this year in Burbank, and during the Q&A segment of his panel I asked him about that scene, and he said Wilson nailed the scene in one take.

“Annabelle: Creation” presents a good half-hour of relentless jump-scares in the fast-moving climax that are not the fake-scare cheap shots a lot of horror films use. Then, Dauberman’s scripts nicely ties it in to subsequent events of “Annabelle.”

“Annabelle” Creation” is a nice recovery from the original, and with a $30 million opening weekend at the box office, it may well inspire more stories about this never-blinking doll whose smile induces chills.

 

 

 

 

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