Review of Annabelle (2014) by Bl4D3Mag3 — 12 Oct 2014

Initially when I went to go watch Annabelle I thought it would act like a sort of spin off to the Conjuring.

I was expecting pretty much a rehashed version of the conjuring, you know some possession stuff being thrown around and all that jazz. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was not what I thought.

It was a horror movie that stood on its own. Some people seem to be comparing it far too much to the conjuring, and that is their downfall. I'm thinking people went to see this movie expecting the same type of thrills they got from the conjuring, but this is a different movie and therefore aims to horrify you in a different way. This movie rather than trying to scare you with the usual tropes and the lame jump scares (though there are still a few) it tries to scare you through the story, the characters and what the movie leaves out, giving your own mind some room to concoct your own horror.

As with any movie a person's fears and expectations of what exactly constitutes horror is brought to the movie, if you're someone that's scared of possession type movies, where a character is possessed and the resolution comes about with an exorcism, then this isn't what you're looking for. However if you're someone interested in a strong story with a freaking terrifying demon that uses an eerie doll as an otherworldly conduit to try and steal some souls, then this is something you need to watch. There is this one scene in particular where the protagonist is running up some stairs in a thunderstorm, that should get your heart racing.

I am someone that is immune to horror, I've not been scared by a horror movie since I was very young, and can predict pretty well everything from the get go. It was no different with this movie it's all fairly predictable, however I was disturbed by the demon that was present in this film. The demon- somewhat reminiscent of that from Insidious- in its physical form was the stuff of nightmares, and the movie gets extra points for having such a brilliant beast.