When rising horror master James Wan introduced audiences to Annabelle in 2013’s The Conjuring, it instantly rose to the ranks of Good Guy (a.k.a. Chucky) and the Poltergeist clown on the list of all-time creepy movie dolls. This film was immediately followed by a standalone prequel — the second film set in the universe of Ed and Lorraine Warren — which began with the same tale related about the doll in the first picture and an origin story involving Satanists. And now we have Annabelle: Creation, the fourth set in the universe and a prequel to the prequel.
This trailer implies the evil inhabiting the Annabelle doll has an even earlier source that at least started from a place of love. A couple devastated by the untimely loss of their child attempt to contact her on the other side. In their grief, they agree to allow the spirit to enter a doll: Annabelle. But it was not who or what they thought, and the couple has been haunted by their choice since. Now, they’ve opened their home to a nun and group of orphans. However, the malevolent spirit sees their arrival as an opportunity to possess a real body and begins to torment the weakest girl.
The most significant and persistent problem with horror movie trailers is their tendency to give away some of the film’s best scares. As there are at least two or three good frights in the included footage, one can only hope they will not be the only ones in the full-length feature… though for this reason, it’s often advisable not to watch any subsequent previews. That said, there’s no indication of how this story will be reconciled with that in the first Annabelle picture, but answers may be provided when the film opens in August 2017.
