the james wan horror empire continues to expand
you're watching Beyond The Trailer's review of Annabelle...
There are things happening that I can't explain.
We should talk to someone.
I don't think what you're experiencing is a ghost.
it used to be if you wanted a good scare you saw an Alfred Hitchcock film
after all he invented the slasher flick with psycho
then as the genre's popularly grew exponentially
new masters of horror emerged! George Romero!
John Carpenter! David Cronenberg! Dario Argento! Wes Craven!
These are the greats, directors who made a career out of horror!
Instead of just stopping by to see if they could pull one off, as some other
notable directors have done, quite well!
And the most recent addition to this list of Masters has been
james wan. sure his experience with saw left a bad taste in his mouth but he
rallied back in spectacular fashion
first with the insidious franchise and then with the conjuring
a twenty million dollar flick that went on to gross over 300 million worldwide
and become one of the most successful horror films ever made
yes interestingly for a guy was one half of the team that dreamed up saw
Wan's success stems from a lack of gore. He makes old-fashioned horror films with
top notch production values
which in turn makes his films accessible to mainstream audiences instead of
only appealing to hardcore horror fans
and now as Wan tries to move beyond directing horror, he still producing horror
maybe as a safety net incase Fast 7 doesn't work out?
after all, of all the horror masters only hitchcock was able to have a career
outside of the genre
and that's because he came to it late in his career. Wan is producing insidious
chapter 3 and while he's not producing The Conjuring 2
he is producing this spin-off Annabelle, an origin story for the infamous doll in
the film
and he's leaving his legacy in good hands and his frequent
cinematographer John R Leonetti is directing here. So...
origin story, eh? Annabelle is very much based on a real doll and the story in
the conjuring is said to be true
but this origin story is pure Hollywood
however Annabelle isn't the first real life demonic dole to capture tinseltown's
heart
remember Chucky? well he is based on Robert
a doll given to a young boy down in Key West Florida and 1906
by a servant who didn't really like that family too much
and was known to dabble in voodoo! the doll is still on display down in Florida
and your advised to ask its permission before taking a photo
Hmm, I hope someone asked Annabelle before signing away her film rights...
this is certainly not on the level of the conjuring
but I still enjoyed Annabelle because it's a horror movie that's just my speed
if you watch this channel regularly then you know that I have a very low threshold
for horror films but Annabelle is like a good ghost story
that you read, it scares the crap out of you and then you wonder why you ever read it in
the first place
but then you want to go and do it again. I think the reason I like James Wan's
films is because of their
storytelling as I said this is like a good ghost story and not only does he
try and put a lot of mythology and you know reason by scares that you see
but I think he incorporates just enough real-life elements
to scare the crap out of you, as I said! I don't want to give away
anything in the film, there's a lot of really good scares here, and there's actually
a lot of stuff that's not shown or even hinted at in the trailer this movie goes
to a
entirely different level than the trailer hints at and I thought that was great
and it really particularly scared me because I wasn't expecting it
so I don't wanna give it away for you either but to kind of give you
an idea of how I left the theater, at the end of the movie
this isn't a spoiler, at the end of the movie they remind you that Annabelle
is a real doll and she lives in a glass case in Lorraine Warren's basement of wherever
she keeps all that crap she gets on her
adventures and it has to be blessed by a priest twice a month to keep
you know, keep it safe from the public and this movie
freaked me out so much and incorporated so much real life elements that I was like
who's going to watch that doll when Lorraine Warren dies? Because Lorraine Warren's
getting up there
and you know what? this story might not be true but it might be true
and since Lorraine Warren is the one who told us all about this doll made it a
you know, legendary, got it to
that level of status and she took it upon herself to protect us in the first place
I think she kinda owes us to make sure that someone makes sure
a priest comes and blesses that doll twice a month forever
because you know what it's better to be safe than sorry - and I think that's a big
lesson to take away from this movie
it's kind of a theme throughout, especially at the beginning of the film
if only they'd been safe, they wouldn't have been so sorry
now the actors here, I think they're all very good. y'know one of the critiques I saw
leveled against this film is that it was derivative
you know copied a lot of other horror films, and I could totally see that there's a lot
rosemary's baby here and there's also a decent amount of Insidious
but at the same time I think all horror movies or someone derivative so it
didn't bother me here because I thought this movie very much had a
personality of its own. now the lead actors here, uh, Annabelle Wallis
same name as the doll! the female lead and her husband, played by
Ward Horton, they were perfectly fine, they did a nice job
while I was watching the movie I thought to myself, you know what? you guys are no
Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne, of course the stars of the insidious franchise
and they just, those are two actors that have a little more personality
a little more verve, they kind of pump the story up, they elevate the material
they have more, just immediate depth, just when you look at them you can sense
stuff going on beneath the surface, not so much
with Wallis and Horton. BUT when I was walking home after seeing the movie
I thought to myself
hey, they're like dolls themselves, Barbie and Ken! And I wish the movie had picked up on that
a little bit
because it would have made their casting actually are quite clever, but again they didn't hurt the movie
I though they really fit in
with the roles and what was required of them, they really were this
you know, Barbie and Ken, perfect couple who found themselves
dealing with evil. Everybody else was also very good
but the real standout, I have to say, was the baby
their baby that they have, I couldn't find an acting credit for this baby I looked all over
the internet
for at least 20 minutes - I couldn't find it in any of the normal places
but I could swear this baby is the Vargas twins.
these are two little girls, they were in neighbors, they were fantastic in
neighbors, they're in the upcoming
Alexander and the Very Terrible Horrible Day and they're just
really good amazing actors, they can listen
which as we all know is the key to being a really great actor
these babies can listen already and in fact there was a scene in the film where this
baby was so cute
that the entire audience laughed at the baby in the middle of this scary horror film
everyone was just like "awww!"
but not only was it fun to see such an intelligent good baby who was such a good actress
well it's two babies
they swap them out, but it really made you want nothing to happen to this baby! you were like
not the baby! because you really cared about it! it wasn't just this little bundle
this baby had personality far more that her parents
and I guess that was also good because the parents were so blank, that the baby really stood out
But I had a fun time watching this movie some people might say
"oh it's too tame! It doesn't have enough gore and scares for me!"
But it scared me plenty! I had to hide my face a whole bunch the whole time
and as I said, it had just enough real elements in it that it freaked me out - and actually when I
was walking home from
the theater I saw at another theater I happened to walk by
they had a big glass front on this theater, and they had hired an actress to sit in the window
with an Annabelle doll and she was like "I like your doll!" Y'know they had all this
written on the window and everyone was like "oh, that's so cool!"
But I don't even want to look at them because I was still
scared from the movie and freaked out! so it affected me, I thought it was fun
and if you're somebody who doesn't like
these like gory horror films and you prefer just a good ghost story to curl
up with and then not be able to go to sleep because you freaked yourself out
then I think you'd enjoy Annabelle. Alright, that's my review thank you so much for
tuning in
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