Annabelle: Awakening is the prequel to the movie Annabelle which was the prequel to the Conjuring movies… a prequel to a prequel. Who know that was a thing? The two Conjuring moves are quite good but Annabelle was quite bad. Surprisingly, this new film is pretty good. Not Conjuring good but at least not Annabelle bad.
Annabelle: Awakening explains how the world’s creepiest doll was made and more-or-less how it became possessed by evil. Which is odd since they showed how it became evil in the original Annabelle movie, or so I thought. This film does a remarkably good job of tying into that previous movie, especially in pretty great coda scene. I didn’t like that previous movie but I respect the hell out of how they connected the two.
The basic story here is that a married couple who live in the middle of nowhere have decided to open their large house to a group of orphan girls (and their nun caregiver). Something tragic happened to the couple in the past so they are hoping to bring life back to their home. The group of girls movie in and then very generic haunted house movie stuff happens for awhile and then some solid scares closer to the end.
This movie seems like its made by two different people. It’s a very good looking film with great cinematography and acting. It knows how to establish a creepy mood. But it also seems to think that every generic haunted house jump scare needs to happen or we’ll get bored and leave. It’s unfortunate that such artful camerawork and acting results in the same jump scares you’ve seen a hundred times before. But that’s only the first part of the movie… once it gets done being a generic boo fest, it becomes a really solid scary movie. I was engrossed throughout in the characters and story even during the repetitive spooky moments, so at least the first half of the film isn’t a waste.
One serious flaw in the film is that it has an intro sequence showing you what happened to the couple who owns the home. If the movie had more confidence, it would have started with the orphans arriving and allowed us to learn what happened organically. But since we already know more than the kids, it robs the movie of some interesting exploration of the house and its history.
On the other hand, one cool thing it does have is at least two main protagonists and sometimes three or four. The two lead younger girls are kind of co-heroes of the film with the movie shifting focus from one to the other in a neat way. The other girls are less textured but have their own independent moments and the friendly caretaker nun is solid as well. I enjoyed how the movie tried to keep you guessing who would live and who would die, who would command the screen, and who would rise to the occasion.
Now, as mentioned before, this is part of the Conjuring Cinematic Universe and it has a brief reference to the next movie in the franchise. It’s not too blatant and is in a scene that is organic to the film otherwise… but it references the evil Nun from the Conjuring films which is the next movie they are making. I suspect also that the evil (minor spoiler) scarecrow that terrorizes some of the girls may himself (itself?) be spun off into another film.
So, yeah, this is a good little horror movie. It has problems with generic jump scares but it’s filmed, acted, and written well enough that I was able to forgive those sins. It eventually moves past those scares and delivers some more organic, earned scary moments. And it’s a good tie-in to the series as a whole and specifically to the previous Annabelle movie. This isn’t an amazing movie and it doesn’t rise to the level of the Conjuring films but it really is worth seeing if you like your spook show flicks.
Score: 82