Movie Review: Annabelle Creation

I’ve been a busy movie-going Hina! I hadn’t planned on twice, in two weekends, seeing movies both Saturday and Sunday. This weekend was a little better overall. I gave both Detroit and Annabelle Creation 4.5 stars. Both were good movies in their own ways. There were a lot of things they could have done better. In this case, I’ll open with, this movie had a hard fail at the Hina test, which, as a reminder, is a measure of a movie’s diversity and female representation. This movie was all white, all the time, save for one African American girl and a nun of somewhat questionable descent. That is one thing all of these movies (made at some point by James Wan) have in common, zero diversity, and the women are always barely escaping. There is something to be said about this overall notion. In an unrelated horror movie, The Skeleton Key, with Kate Hudson, one of the characters points out that African American girls avoid them, thus perhaps laying credence to the idea that minorities know to stay away from something that’s clearly sketchy.

Back to the actual movie that I watched. In the world of The Conjuring, the viewer usually follows Ed and Lorraine Warren, played perfectly by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. The two are picture perfect, not replicas, but embodiments of the support and understanding that is seen from the Warren family. Being the nerd that I am, yes, I have seen haunting shows with them in it. The two actors are marvelous. The Conjuring began with a family being haunted in a newly purchased super old house that was the site of some scary stuff. In that movie, there is a glimpse of a room with a creepy doll in it. The doll is Annabelle. The subsequent movie in the ‘series,’ so to speak, was Annabelle, which follows how the Warrens ended up with the doll. In this movie, we see how Annabelle was created (a real stretch considering the title).

I was excited in the trailers to see Miranda Otto (shield maiden of Rohan!), but sadly, she was not as Eowyn as I would have liked. She and her husband have a small child, accident happens, wackiness ensues – fast forward 12 years and the family, for some unknown reason, decide to take in a bunch of orphans, and one that can’t walk all that well. The plot sort of gives itself away, but at the same time, it keeps everything so closed off, you can only sit back, watch, and occasionally (or if you’re me, constantly) cover your eyes or cringe.

I would hate to SPOIL a horror movie, half the fun is in the mystery leading up to the big, usually terrifying reveal. I will say this, it has been a long, long time since I’ve been to a scary movie and was genuinely scared. I was, at one point, trying to climb further into my chair (there was dumbwaiter on screen), but this didn’t make the little girl move any more quickly. The scenes were chock full of tidbits to dissect. One thing you can always count on with these horror movies is that there is a lot to process, a lot to see, if you dare see it a second or third time (not me!). For example, when we first meet the doll, after it has been compromised, it is locked in a closet with what looks like newsprint all over the walls. It isn’t newsprint, it is pages of the bible glued to the wall. This knowledge, unknown to the kids, is actually used, in theory, to save one of them (it doesn’t work). 

Some people might say this movie doesn’t bring anything new, but I wondered about all the things it introduced. In the last Conjuring movie, there is a painting of a nun that sort of comes to life and I was worried the nun in this movie would end up being that nun (jury is still out). The very end of the movie really sort of kicked you in the teeth, circling everything back. It was creepy and well-paced. Say what you will about these movies, but I never regret seeing them and I doubt you will either.