Annabelle disappoints moviegoers

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MCT

Shane Keyser/Kansas City Star/MCT

Hannah Dioh, Staff Writer

Annabelle” was not a waste of my money but I could have spent it on something with more satisfaction. The movie was directed by John R. Leonetti, who is known for his work on The Conjuring (2013), The Mask (1994) and Insidious (2010).  Leonetti worked with James Wan who produced “Annabelle”. The stars were Ward Horton, who plays John Gordon, the husband of Mia Gordon, played by Annabelle Wallis. It also stars Alfre Woodard (Evelyn).

The setting is in America, in 1967 and the plot revolves around Annabelle, a haunted doll. John gives the doll to his expectant wife, Mia, as a present. She places it in her doll collection that decorates the room of her child. While Mia and John were sleeping a murder took place in the home of their neighbor. John goes out to investigate as Mia starts to call the police. There were two intruders, the male killer attacks her. The female killer is so desperate to escape after the police and John come in to save Mia that she commits suicide. Her spirit goes into the doll and after that event strange activities begin to occur.

“Annabelle” has an overwhelmingly close resemblance to Chucky. Annabelle the doll has the same mischievous aura as Chucky. It comes up with clever schemes that one wouldn’t have thought about to use to kill someone.When copying something it would make sense to do a better job than the original but instead the writers opt to go in the other direction with this spin-off of “The Conjuring”. The first half of the movie was fill with enough dread to cause a scream or two, but the second half lacked horror.

It’s just a regular horror movie, nothing really stood out, except the ending. It was very unsatisfactory, it doesn’t make any sense at all. It seems as if the writers had a case of writer’s block and decided to just winged the ending. All in all the movie had a few ok scares a couple of  goosebumps but nothing to the point of making you paranoid, it could have been better.

I did research online and found out that the movie does revolve around a true story. The doll was actually possessed by a seven year old girl named Annabelle. According to the real Annabelle story the owners would come home and find the doll in places that they didn’t leave it. The demon inflicted physical harm to Donna’s roommate’s fiance Lou. Eventually the doll was taken into the hands of paranormal researchers Ed and Lorraine Warren, it has been in their possession ever since.

The “Annabelle” movie was full of too many empty spaces, the ending wasn’t explained well. I found myself doing online research to find out how the ending related to the movie.  The script was lacking, and the plot felt rushed. A complete stranger willing to sacrifice themselves for a cause that has nothing to do with them isn’t believable.