Review of Annabelle (2014) by Thequietgamer — 14 Feb 2015

Given the late 60's early 70's setting I was hoping for an old-school feeling horror film like the ones from that era. While the visual style and poor acting are from that era, the scares are not. It is very much a modern feeling horror movie, and a boring one at that. No more boring than your average non-scary horror movie, but boring nonetheless.

If anything it might actually help you appreciate the attempts at tension building the average horror duds have, as this movie has none. The slow moments aren't there to build up scares. They're just there and only serve to bore.

The attempts as frights are served up in the ever predictable form of jump scares. While these types of things do manage to scare some people, as evident by the fact that directors keep using them and making small fortunes at the box office, the more seasoned horror movie veteran is going to be left completely unshaken. This horror fanatic was just left yawning.

While I appreciate the attention to detail that was used to bring the era back to life I wish more was done to tap some of the influence of the horror movies of that time. That way even if it wasn't scary it would have at least been a decent throwback. As it stands it lacks atmosphere and the ability to instill fear. When you consider that this is a spin-off of "The Conjuring" and has ties to a true story it's even more disappointing.

I give the movie a 4.3/10.