Annabelle (2014), R, ★★

That's not her baby, that's a doll!

I personally think dolls are overrated, but, they sell. Sometimes, dolls look terrifying and some look adorable from little girls' eyes. I have noticed in some movies that dolls are the center of horror films just for fun or just for a gore-fest that seems unnecessary. However, this movie is relevant because it takes place before the events of The Conjuring, a very good horror flick from last year. Even though there are scary moments in between, it uses cheap jolts to scare the pants off us and it results as a disappointedly clichéd memento in our minds.

John and Mia Gordon (Ward Horton and Annabelle Wallis) are a couple in 1970 who are expecting to their first child. John is uneasy about having their first child and not being ready for it when he expresses his feelings to his neighbors. Mia is upset at his attitude and to make up for it, John buys her a doll that she has been looking for constantly and she adores it and puts it with her collection of dolls. That's a bad sign in a horror flick.

At night, there appears to be a murder happening next door and John goes there to investigate. When he runs out, he is covered in the neighbors' blood and tells Mia to call 911. And when she hears a voice inside the house as she is calling the police, Mia hears that it likes dolls and a man attacks her and stabs her on the side and John kills him while the woman commits suicide. A bloody symbol has been drawn onto the wall and drop onto Annabelle's eye.

The wound causes damage to Mia's cervix but is fine as she gives birth to a healthy baby girl named Lea. Afraid of her home, Mia decides to move into an apartment and while unpacking her things and dolls, Annabelle is in storage and places it alongside the other dolls. Mia and Lea are involved in some strange activity where she sees hallucinations such as a drawing animation where it shows Lea's death. Oh, boy, ever since getting the doll as a gift, more recurring nightmares and activities seem to get in Mia's way.

Father Perez. Yeah, this gimmick is from The Exorcist.

This is a weird scary movie that really puts gimmicks and jolts to drive the narrative instead of exploring with what is going on between the characters and the doll. I did not really see any human connections in relevance to the characters in The Conjuring. Both of these films have exorcisms and supernatural occurrences. In The Conjuring, it is related because the setting is at an old house where haunted stories from the past seem to take place in that house and the jolts were expected, yes, but they were not extraneous to the story. This movie's scares are extraneous and taken from classic horror films such as The Exorcist, the awful Chucky films, Rosemary's Baby and a hint of the old version of The Omen.

The atmosphere and cinematography are the best elements of the film giving us the creepy nature of what is revolving around Mia's vulnerability and worries for herself and her baby. The first 20-30 minutes executed real well as we are witnessing Mia's struggles with the birth and also with supernatural noises. The second half turns into a dumbed-down, redundant deprecation of characters being tossed around, things being thrown around, and sacrifices. Plus, the stakes are not there because they use the child in peril and it is not fun because you know what's going to happen. And, I don't know what the respectable Alfre Woodard is doing this film but she gave a decent performance.

It tries to play like Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist but as a result, this movie is generic and basically a terrible commercial for dolls. I would not want to show a little girl this movie, otherwise, she is going to have a tough time into thinking what she will want for Christmas. This is nowhere near as good as Rosemary's Baby, because the cheap tricks and clichés interfere with the experience at the movies. Sorry, but, I don't think that Annabelle or the movie itself will sell.

**