Director: John R Leonetti
Released: 2014
Runtime: 99 minutes
Annabelle is a prequel to The Conjuring. Annabelle the doll appears in The Conjuring, and this movie tells her back story.
First of all, can I say, I was disappointed with The Conjuring because I thought it was about Annabelle and it wasn't. She was featured in it, but the movie did not centre around her. I was super excited when I heard about this movie being made as I thought we were going to get the real deal. However, read on to see how I felt about this movie.
Annabelle is a rag doll in real life, yet in The Conjuring they decided to use a porcelain doll. Presumably this was done to make her look more scary. Whilst I see the point, I prefer, if a true event is being used, that they use the real details.
Released: 2014
Runtime: 99 minutes
Annabelle is a prequel to The Conjuring. Annabelle the doll appears in The Conjuring, and this movie tells her back story.
First of all, can I say, I was disappointed with The Conjuring because I thought it was about Annabelle and it wasn't. She was featured in it, but the movie did not centre around her. I was super excited when I heard about this movie being made as I thought we were going to get the real deal. However, read on to see how I felt about this movie.
Annabelle is a rag doll in real life, yet in The Conjuring they decided to use a porcelain doll. Presumably this was done to make her look more scary. Whilst I see the point, I prefer, if a true event is being used, that they use the real details.
I have included this movie under a category called "True Events" purely because the doll is real. Yet, after some investigating (which I cant help doing if a movie is based on something true), I found out that the entire movie fabricated. The reason it was fabricated was to put some back story behind the doll, and explain how she became possessed. In actual truth, the real story only starts when Donna's mother bought her from an antique shop and gave her to Donna (as we see at the very end of the movie, and also at the start of both this and The Conjuring).
Onto the acting, Annabelle Wallis (X-Men First Class and Body of Lies) and Ward Horton (from various TV shows) play Mia and John, the young couple who are in possession of Annabelle. Tony Amendola (known for Blow and Mask of Zorro to mention a couple) plays the priest called in to help Mia and John. All three of these performances, in my opinion, where middle of the road. I wouldn't say they were awful, but I also wouldn't go out of my way to commend any of them for how they did.
The only performance that I feel deserves any credit would be Alfre Woodward (from K-Pax and Primal Fear) as Evelyn. She plays a neighbour of Mia and John, who develops a relationship with Mia and tries to help her with the situation. Her performance was rather good. She was definitely the only one who stood out for me.
I know that James Wan was one of the producers on this movie, however, I really feel that if he had directed it, it would have been a much better movie. Leonetti has previously directed Mortal Kombat: Annihilation and The Butterfly Effect 2. In my opinion, those two sequels are awful movies, and I just feel that the Annabelle story deserved so much better.
Onto the acting, Annabelle Wallis (X-Men First Class and Body of Lies) and Ward Horton (from various TV shows) play Mia and John, the young couple who are in possession of Annabelle. Tony Amendola (known for Blow and Mask of Zorro to mention a couple) plays the priest called in to help Mia and John. All three of these performances, in my opinion, where middle of the road. I wouldn't say they were awful, but I also wouldn't go out of my way to commend any of them for how they did.
The only performance that I feel deserves any credit would be Alfre Woodward (from K-Pax and Primal Fear) as Evelyn. She plays a neighbour of Mia and John, who develops a relationship with Mia and tries to help her with the situation. Her performance was rather good. She was definitely the only one who stood out for me.
I know that James Wan was one of the producers on this movie, however, I really feel that if he had directed it, it would have been a much better movie. Leonetti has previously directed Mortal Kombat: Annihilation and The Butterfly Effect 2. In my opinion, those two sequels are awful movies, and I just feel that the Annabelle story deserved so much better.