by Maria Baluch

If you’ve watched “The Conjuring,” then you are already familiar with the eerie doll that sets the stage for the highly anticipated prequel, “Annabelle.”

Unfortunately, “Annabelle” was quite a disappointment and was not even half as scary when compared to “The Conjuring.” Directed by John R. Leonetti, the film establishes how the doll acquired its demonic qualities.

John and Mia Gordon, as portrayed by Ward Horton and Annabelle Wallis, are a young married couple who are preparing for their new baby and move to an apartment after a fire destroys their home. John sees the Annabelle doll in a store and decides to purchase it as a gift for his wife.

The first thing that came to mind at this moment is why in the world would anyone think buying a doll that looks as terrifying as Annabelle does, with its porcelain face, dark creepy eyes, and a cunning smile, be a good idea? Sure enough, when the doll arrives at the house, strange things start happening in the couple’s new apartment.

Mia begins to think that the doll is disturbing and tells John to throw it away and he just dumps it in a bin outside. After a fire destroys their home, they move to a new apartment and when Mia unloads the boxes of her doll collection, she sees that the Annabelle doll is still there.

Instead of worrying about how it got there, she just places it on the wall next to her other dolls.

The film follows the typical horror cliché of household items rearranging on their own, doors slamming shut, flickering lights, things jumping out at the screen when you least expect it, and of course a baby, because a horror movie isn’t a horror movie unless it includes a child.

There are scary moments in the film like the sight of a horned demon in the basement for instance, however, the plot itself is pretty slow and doesn’t build any sort of tension. With that said, “Annabelle” is not exactly horrifying.

The movie could have had a lot more to offer, had it been directed by James Wan, director of “The Conjuring,” who has given us countless chillers like, “Insidious,” “Dead Silence,” “Saw” and many other great titles.

It comes as a surprise that Wan was involved in the production of this movie as one of the producers. However, “Annabelle” was not the masterpiece you would expect from him.