BELATED WEEKEND REVIEW OF ANNABELLE: CREATION

Year Released: 2017

Combining horror sub-genres like Haunted House, Body Count and Demon Possession, ANNABELLE: CREATION is more exploitation rural than its dressed-up predecessor, smoothly building the characters... female orphans from ages 8 to 16 with a nun and the parents of...

Rate: ***

Well that's the origin story in the prologue about a dollmaker, his adoring wife and their beloved daughter, who's killed, and, a decade later the story ignites: The initial suspense handled through the two youngest girls discovering what's in this movie's locked-room "237". The cheat scares are nicely done and aren't overused, so when the real, more palpable and genuine threat is revealed, it's the perfect time...

Unfortunately, a barrage of CGI ruins the subtle yet spooky foundation. The "Monster" behind that CREATION could manifest in any film, cable TV show or hell, even a commercial, nowadays. Thankfully these over-effects don't last very long and the girls, including two pretty older ones, make for decent stalked-ingenues despite the fact they're all stuck in an extremely familiar nightmare — while nothing's left for us but to wait for a conclusion, which drags and drags to finally... happen...