Devil doll sequel offers sequence of horror cliches
Devilish dolls and mannequins are such vintage staples of horror movies that filmmakers have to come up with something pretty special to justify using them. On that score, “Annabelle: Creation” falls short. It has a decent portion of visceral scares, but otherwise depends too much on predictable horror movie tricks.
For those keeping score: “Annabelle: Creation” is a prequel to “Annabelle” (2014), which was a spinoff of the two-film horror series that began with “The Conjuring” in 2013. Other spinoffs and sequels are in the works, and the whole blooming enterprise has become known as the “Conjuring Universe.”
“Annabelle: Creation” begins with the accidental death in the 1940s of the beloved young daughter of a doll maker (Anthony LaPaglia) and his wife (Miranda Otto). Fast-forward, and a busload of orphans — six girls, under the charge of a goody-goody nun (Stephanie Sigman) — are being dropped off at the bereaved couple’s spacious country house, where the doll maker has offered them refuge.
The youngsters, who seem remarkably well-scrubbed and cheerful for orphans, are delighted with their new digs, even if: (1) they are forbidden to enter the mysterious locked room, wherein resides a creepy doll, and (2) they must tread lightly so as not to disturb the now-bedridden mother of the dead girl.
You may be guessing they’ve entered a classic haunted house, or house of horrors, and you are correct. You are also right if you’re guessing that glimpses of the deceased daughter will figure prominently in what follows.
The focus is on the two youngest orphans, Janice (Talitha Bateman) and Linda (Lulu Wilson), great pals who have sworn to stick together no matter what. Spunky Janice is a polio victim, and you may be sure that she will drop her brace at crucial moments. She’s the first to enter the locked room, after which there is heck to pay, horror-movie style.
An amusing note: The house happens to have one of those mechanical chairs that moves on a track up and down stairs, perfect for Janice. The chair figures in one of the movie’s more intriguing sequences. The film also has a bit of fun with a scarecrow.
The director is David F. Sandberg, who made a better horror picture in 2016 called “Lights Out.” Give him credit for accomplishing as much as he has in “Annabelle: Creation” while working under the constraints of a sequel (either the second or fourth picture; see above).
There are “gotcha” jolts that definitely got me, but for each of those, there must be a half-dozen scares telegraphed in very large letters. I think “Annabelle: Creation” is suffering from sequelitis. Walter Addiego is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: waddiego@sfchronicle.com.