She terrified you in “The Conjuring,” but this is where it all began for Annabelle. Capable of unspeakable evil, the actual doll exists locked up in an occult museum in Connecticut—visited only by a priest who blesses her twice a month. New Line Cinema’s supernatural thriller “Annabelle” begins before the evil was unleashed. John Form has found the perfect gift for his expectant wife, Mia—a beautiful, rare vintage doll in a pure white wedding dress. But Mia’s delight with Annabelle doesn’t last long. On one horrific night, their home is invaded by members of a satanic cult, who violently attack the couple. Spilled blood and terror are not all they leave behind. The cultists have conjured an entity so malevolent that nothing they did will compare to the sinister conduit to the damned that is now… Annabelle.
16 February 1978, Houston, Texas, USA
24 August 1951, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
8 November 1952, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
12 November 1934, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
26 March 1990, Chicago, Illinois, USA
1984, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK
8 October 1980, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
10 January 1947, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
14 January 1976, Morristown, New Jersey, USA
February 26, 2016
Annabelle, at its heart, feels like it should be part of an anthology collection, clocking in at twenty or thirty minutes, instead of at feature length.October 03, 2014
What we mostly get in Annabelle is what we've gotten from so many other horror films: creaking floors, funky white-robed figures, home appliances that go off on their own, mysterious writing that shows up in mysterious places.October 03, 2014
Annabelle, an effective prequel to horror pastiche The Conjuring, surpasses its predecessor simply by virtue of occasionally being scary.October 16, 2014
Quality is often irrelevant in a horror movie; shock is the key.October 03, 2014
Although [Leonetti] covers no new ground - things are largely predictable - he pays tribute to horror classics such as "Rosemary's Baby."January 20, 2015
Watching Annabelle is like watching a movie you've seen a dozen times before, just with different actors and slight variations on the same scare tactics.January 13, 2015
For much of its running time, Annabelle is so bereft of ideas for scare tactics that when the doll isn't involved, it's hard to differentiate it from any other domestic horror movie that's ever come out.January 23, 2015
We could chat all day about how "Annabelle" lifted (even stole) bits from better films. But, that would take away from the net effect of this evil doll movie. "Annabelle" is a very good horror film, originality be damned.March 15, 2015
Annabelle's problems are legion but let's start with the bait-and-switch hook that promises a killer doll and instead delivers a shadowy gargoyle.October 13, 2014
The script, by Gary Dauberman, is a clichéd mess, lacking humor and surprises. But Leonetti stages some fright-worthy sequences ...April 08, 2016
In the hands of a better creative team, an all-Annabelle film might have been a grand slam. Here it's a bloop single, narrowly avoiding a tag out on the basepaths.