Here is the second week in theaters is the horror film “the Curse of Annabelle: the Birth of evil” and does so with great success. Of course, the box office can not serve as a definite measure in the question of cultural values. However, we got lucky here, and the picture really came out very decent.
Let me remind you the synopsis:
A few years after the tragic death of their young daughter, the puppet master and his wife invited to his house the nun and several girls from the orphanage, soon becoming a target for obsessed of creating a doll — Annabelle.
To admit, the first rave reviews, fell on the film from foreign resources, I was surprised. I think I speak common or at least widespread belief, if I say that from this picture no one, nothing waited. The failure is also not predicted — still on his right shoulder sits the Director James WAN, one of the most significant figures in modern horror. Just quality, but rather the passing product is what was expected by the audience.
It is understandable that previous film, the first “the Curse of Annabelle”, looked pretty decent outside, but were dead inside. Director John R. Leonetti tried not to focus on used stamps, so it was streamlined and knowingly vaguely familiar. The situation was saved by a kind of Fleur-spirit of the 60’s: music, interiors, costumes and hairstyles. In this spin-off honestly tried to comply with the parent series “Curse”, however, soft-cover styling, the strict operator, set a good skimmer something was missing.
In the prequel “Annabelle” Director’s chair was occupied by David F. Sandberg. Events, in turn, moved first in 1943, then in 1955 — another time, another atmosphere. And the picture, however, was much closer to the “Spells” than the first part. A similar thesis was expressed by a colleague of Felix Kryventsov in my review. I’m really not ready to accept the fact that Sandberg is not a gram of individuality, but more on that later.
God is in the details.
In the “Origin of evil” a lot of things, most of which not only creates the background, but works for the story. However, there is a certain deliberateness in how we show them, though noting on the map where the spectators will be afraid of you then. And still it is impossible not to praise the creators for this love to detail. Old bus metal bracket on the leg girls, wheelchair, doll house, Scarecrow in the barn, playing hide and seek with some of the characters… All of it enriches the picture, makes it alive.
And even the house, another huge creaky dark house, I remember as something a little special. Gloomy massiveness, it feels almost all the time. In the first and in the second “Spell” has similar locations, but local families managed to fill the terrible emptiness, to bring them, if not the warmth, the comfort. But the building has the character of a Gothic castle, therein lies the nobility, the beauty and the burden of the dark past. Maybe it’s that the narrative is mostly from the faces of the children who roam the house alone, and because everything becomes bigger, taller and heavier.
And by the way, I’m not going to convince you that children are the flowers of life, but the young actress really decorated the new “the Curse of Annabelle”. Again, in the original film some charisma, could boast except that Alfre Woodard, but the screen time really was not, nor sufficient motivation for actions. In the prequel the same Shine 11-year-old Lulu Wilson and 15-year-old Talita Batemanplaying orphans. In addition, it is worth noting the choice of nine-year-old Samara Lee on the role of the lost daughter of the owners of the house: during the life of her heroine looks just like a very life-like doll, but after death, the puppet becomes creepy, and most importantly, fits in with the aesthetics of the picture.
Adult actors Stephanie Sigman, Miranda Otto and Anthony Lapaglia professionally play their roles, but only serve as a rich backdrop for the story of the two girls. Well, it’s about a girl and her girlfriend. Lapaglia quiet dark figure, the overwhelming mirth around him, a few stands out from the background and yet it is-because his character is a living reflection of the houses of which we spoke above. Noble, beautiful, bearing the inescapable burden of the past, well, you understand.
But about the doll Annabelle to tell me how something almost nothing.
I know she, if not a Scarecrow, it really bothered me in the prologue to “the Conjuring,” but neither the first dedicated to her spin-off or in the “Origin of evil” special emotions this thing I did not cause. Here is the ventriloquist doll from “Dead silence” the same van was creepy and Annabelle… well, I don’t know the design openly and deliberately tripoly. Now, if the filmmakers managed to make a scary initially nice or fun thing that would be art! By the way, in this context, pleasing cameo original doll Annabelle in the frame. Not the one that is stored behind glass in the Museum of ed and Lorraine Warren, and just from the same series of toys. It is big, soft and, despite the huge black holes of eyes, not at all scary. We have seen her on the set of “the Birth of evil”, by the way.
However, really terrible in the film was more than enough, so my attitude towards the doll had no effect on the number of bricks that have accumulated under my seat in the cinema.
Some scenes look familiar. Unexpected appearances from the darkness, tossing objects and people in the air — we saw all of this and… all this we like. So James WAN and his team continue to exploit such techniques. The demon, flickering for just a second in the mirror or visible the corner of my eye, I think, altogether beautiful. This elusiveness of the image is really scary. There were other things that lead to internally shrink — grow girl, or breaking the fingers, for example. I will not spoil, it’s just cool.
In addition, I would like to mention the scene in which, it appears, embodied the dreams of the Director. Orphan Linda found a toy gun that shoots a small ball on a string, well, and now sits on the threshold of the room, shoots the door in the darkness, and then pulls the ball back. I have not had such a gorgeous gun, but something in this scene made me return for a moment to your childhood. Stirred up some vague memories of single games and fear. Not sure I want to remember it clearly, and then you never know…
Well, finally, after overcoming a series of skimmer, the story is closed. The prequel did its job, and the original “Annabelle” was filled with some new meaning. And most importantly, we got the painting as interesting and alive as the work of James WAN. Not lost in all these vintage items and strange style of the Director? I do not know. David F. Sandberg is at the very beginning of my career, so it’s unclear whether he has an individual style and what he is. However, despite the similarity with “Spells” in the “Origin of evil” we see a slightly different story. Sandberg focuses on children, not only frightens, but also pushes the drama.
And goes very well.
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