Annabelle

(2014)
**

In the mid-'60s, sweet Catholics, John and Mia, are starting their very cute little nuclear family in Southern California, until one night, their neighbor's adult daughter returns from her Manson-esque cult to kill her parents and (unbeknownst to John and Mia), plant a demon in Mia's new doll.  John and Mia spend the remainder of the film trying to get over the murder of their neighbors and deal with all the peculiar violence occurring in their lives.

I really wanted to like this movie.  I really did.  I loved Insidious and The Conjuring, and thought the preview looked really scary.  Unfortunately, James Wan served only as a producer of this film, not director, and the difference shows.  Ultimately, this movie just wasn't very scary.  [SMALL SPOILER AHEAD] Annabelle the doll is incredibly creepy, as was demonstrated in The Conjuring.  But for some reason, Annabelle really isn't the main antagonist in this film.  Mia starts seeing images of the demon that possesses Annabelle, and the demon is the same one from insidious in all black instead of red/black.  This movie even goes long stretches where we don't see Annabelle at all.  This movie had such great potential, but sadly, didn't use it.  It gets two stars for atmosphere and effort, but it failed in execution.